Gareth Bale believes Great Britain have a great chance of striking gold in the Olympic football tournament if selection politics are overcome.
The Football Association of Wales, and its Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts, fear that endorsing the Great Britain team would prompt other nations to demand that the four home nations should always play as a combined team.
Against that background it remains to be seen whether the likes of Tottenham and Wales star Bale, Craig Bellamy, Steven Fletcher and Chris Brunt, who are all in Stuart Pearce's 80-man provisional squad, will play in the Olympic tournament.
If they do, Bale expects them to be gold contenders.
He told BBC's Football Focus: "If that [club commitments] all gets sorted out then I don't see any reason why not.
"We've got some great players in all the nations so yeah we definitely have a good chance of getting gold, you never know."
Bale is hoping Tottenham can produce a strong finish to the Premier League campaign and book a top four-spot finish that would bring with it Champions League qualification providing Chelsea do not win their Champions League final meeting with Bayern Munich.
"I had a taste of it last season and I enjoyed it thoroughly," said Bale.
"I think everybody always wants to test themselves against the best players in the world. We have to wait and see what happens. Obviously if we don't [qualify for Champions League] we'll have to sit down and discuss and see what's best for myself."
Bale played down reports linking him with Barcelona, adding: "Obviously it's flattering but at the end of the day I'm still a Tottenham player and I need to keep performing week in week out for not just myself but for the team."
Source: PA
