World Cup 2014: MP Wants Parliamentary Debate on UK Football Team After 'Woeful' England Showing

An MP is calling for Parliament to debate disbanding the England football team after its "woeful" World Cup campaign and forming a team made up of players from all four United Kingdom nations.

Laurence Robertson, Conservative MP for Tewkesbury, said a UK team would stand a much better chance of World Cup success than the home nations do individually.

Launching an early day motion on Wednesday, Bolton Wanderers fan Robertson noted how, with England's 1966 victory aside, Home Nations sides have a poor World Cup record.

In the history of the World Cup, Scotland has only qualified for eight tournaments out of a possible 20, while Northern Ireland and Wales have made it to three and one finals respectively.

He said: "It's time to forget old rivalries and move on, for the sake of the game, the country and for businesses in the UK" says Mr Robertson.

"As far as I know, no other country on earth fields two national football teams, let alone four. Doing so lessens our chances of success and denies international and World Cup experience to some great players which all four countries have produced over the years.

"Not only has England failed to win the World Cup for 48 years, but some of our performances have been woeful, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have not even been there. I don't believe that we should continue to sit back and accept what some may see as the inevitable, and my motion is an attempt to kick-start a debate on this subject."

An early day motions are formal motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons. However, very few are actually debated. They allow MPs to draw attention to an event or cause and MPs can register their support by signing individual motions.

So far Robertson is the lone signature on the motion.