Since the 1992 Olympic games, European clubs have heeded FIFA’s call for allowing Olympic eligible players (age 23 and under) to compete in the Olympics without objections.
The times, they are a changing.
German clubs Werder Bremen and Schalke 04 have refused to release Brazilians Diego and Rafinha for the tournament, prompting FIFA to prepare to clarify its own rules on Olympic call-ups.
What is going to happen? Well, if FIFA doesn’t want the Olympics to become a joke with mass rejections of player call-ups then it will do what FIFA does well, impose its rules with an iron fist. The Olympics are either an important tournament or not and failure to enforce a rule making teams release Olympic age playes would send a terrible message to European clubs and to players considering representing their countries.
Trezeguet retires as French international
Juventus striker and long-time French national team striker David Trezeguet has retired from the national team, citing France’s decision to retain head coach Raymond Domenech as head coach as the reason for his decision.
Can you really blame Trezeguet? It was bad enough that Domenech didn’t bring him in for the European Championships, but for Domenech to keep his job after France’s awful showing at the Euros left Trezeguet little choice.
It’s a sad end to a memorable national team career highlighted by Trezeguet’s game-winning goal in the Euro 2000 final against Italy, and lowlighted for his penalty kick miss in the 2006 World Cup.
Chelsea-Lampard battle wages on
The battle surrounding Frank Lampard’s uncertain future at Chelsea continues, with Lampard denying Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari’s suggestion that Lampard had committed his future to Chelsea. Now Chelsea is insisting that it will reject Inter’s offer for Lampard and he will see out the remaining year on his contract, whether or not he signs a new deal.
What a mess. What is clear is that Lampard is growing increasingly unhappy and looks prepared to battle Chelsea for his chance to join Jose Mourinho at Inter. Chelsea will likely let the battle play out before selling Lampard later in the window. By then the public clamoring will be to end the struggle, whereas now the fan backlash for selling Lampard would be greater.
What do you think of these stories? Should FIFA enforce the Olympic rules? Did Trezeguet do the right thing? Should Chelsea back down and let Lampard leave? Share your thoughts below?
I can understand various clubs’ desires to protect their assets, but I side with FIFA on this one. Either the Olympics are the de-facto U-23 Championship, or not. It either is important or it isn’t. FIFA needs to protect the integrity of its tournaments, because this can become a dangerous precedent if they allow it continue.
Olympics?
*yawn*
Even less relevant than the “Brimstone Cup” …
A major problem with the Olympics is that FIFA doesn’t have a window for it. There’re matches that some of these clubs will be playing that they’ll be missing players for. The most important ones are the CL qualifiers. A team may be missing some of their most important players and get knocked out of CL before the competition even gets to the group stage. Its one thing to be missing players for a few league matches where if the team looses because they’re missing players (cuz they’ll just loose out on a few points), but to be missing players for a knockout round of a competion is completely different (cuz there’s not chance to make it up later, you’re done). FIFA didn’t leave the open window for the Olympics.
Astan – wouldnt be a bad idea to have it another U20 tourny… at that point most U20’s will be on a team, but not necessarily playing first team allowing the team to feel more willingly to release them
Friendlies aren’t worthless, but one of the main reason that every country schedules them before a competition is because every team schedules them. Nobody wants to be different & have to explain why they aren’t playing any.
I wish I wasn’t so cynical about the whole thing because I used to get excited about all national team games. Unfortunately I’ve wasted so much time & money watching games where it was obvious that none of the players or managers cared about the result or the performance. That’s why Wenger is right & eventually friendlies will hardly exist because everybody will stop caring.
In football the big tournaments are the world cup, the euros, the africa cup and so on. The olympics were never an important event for the sport, a football world cup is bigger than the entire olympic games in any case.
For the european teams some of the players are important. Take Werder Bremen: Diego is their No. 10, their playmaker. If he goes to China he will miss the entire pres-season, all training camps and on top of that he will miss two league games. When he comes back he will be tired, in bad physical shape and perhaps injured. For Werder Bremen this is a huge problem.
They hsould make the olympic football tournament a U-21 or U-20 tournament for young talent, but not for players like Diego or Ronaldino.
seven – ok drop the WCQ… i stand firm on larger competitions then… WC, Copa, Gold, Euro’s etc… these are all intl’ competitions that serve a purpose… friendlies before thena are fine tuning…
some players dont work well together… the friendlies allow you to fine tune your starting XI…. of course im still refering to the friendlies before a major competition….
alot of the friendlies are simply giving the fans what they want and also putting $$ into the pocket of the federations, including FIFA…
Seven, while national teams may play qualifiers after a long break, I think the international set-aside dates dictate what friendlies are played as tune-ups. If there is a long break between qualifiers, there is usually an international date available and most nations take advantage. However, if no date is set aside, then there is no chance for those tuneups.
I agree that friendlies are not game-conditions exactly but if they were worthless, then all the Euro participants would not have piled 2-3 games into the 15 days before the tournament.
Just a few thoughts.
Brett, whether they are necessary or not is debatable. With the right approach you could probably prepare your team just as well with more training sessions & inter-squad games. Like NFL pre-season games, friendlies are far removed from real games because players & managers are so worried about injuries. National teams sometimes go months without games & then have an important qualifier without a warm-up match.
seven – would you classify friendlies before major tournaments worthless??? (ie. Copa, WCQ, WC, Euros, Gold, etc…)
now i agree alot of the friendlies are simply there to just add $$ to the pockets of certain organizations… as is the idea of having a different jersey for each competition… but the friendlies to prepare before a major competition strike me as necessary
Ted – and im sure the club teams would be all for that….
never agreed with their thoughts on it, simply stating their perspective… and they would jump on your idea like a fat kid in a candy store 😀
William, you make some good points re. big clubs & the international calendar, but the case of the Olympics is different since it is not a FIFA event. Unlike other sports, soccer doesn’t need the Olympics & FIFA would much rather see their own events prosper than help the IOC.
Olympic soccer & international friendlies would hardly be missed. Soccer in the Olympics is largely ignored & international friendlies have become a joke. The soccer calendar is already full with meaningful games & competitions.
@quartz62
You are only looking at half of the “control” equation. While FIFA may not control the IOC, they do control the clubs — at least for now.
Joe D.
There is a difference (a major one) between recommending and setting guidelines, and recommending them does not mean you control the tournament. As per your opening statement FIFA has nothing to do with the IOC as far as setting laws, hence FIFA should have no power over the release of players to play in that tournament.
That’s the way I look at it, may not be pleasing for everyone, but I have an issue with FIFA dictating what the clubs must do when it comes to something they don’t control. Big Brother syndrome I suppose
Joe D. has it right. The IOC works with international sporting organizations like FIBA or FIFA to organize the Olympic tournaments.
@quartz62
FIFA makes recommendations to the IOC for the Olympics Soccer Tournament. So, in other words, FIFA sets the guidelines for the tournament. So if FIFA wants to change the rules to force clubs to release players, then they can do that and the IOC would oblige.
FIFA should enforce the release of under-23 players. And get rid of the three over-23 players completely. I think the Olympics should be a purely under-23 event and that clubs should be required to release players.
Aren’t the Olympics ran under the Olympic Committee and not FIFA?
Does FIFA really have any say in a tournament that falls under another organizing body, that the main purpose is not football?
I just don’t understand FIFA’s involvement in something run by another world body, and it is not a FIFA tournament.
Villareal’s website says Jozy will be participating in the Olympics.
Michael Owen hasn’t been the same player since he got injured while with the English National team. But, if FIFA doesn’t support the tournament on this rule then this is the end for football at the Olympics.
Re: Olympic availability– first, I think the current situation with regard to the Olympics. It’s a compromise, and as someone else said, the mark of a really good compromise is that it leaves pretty much everyone a little dissatisfied. Of course, if FIFA doesn’t enforce its own rule, the problem is with enforcement, not the rule itself.
I think US fans should be interested in the enforcement of this rule because by the next Olympic cycle, we may actually have to deal with it. We’re already worrying about it a little with regard to Jozy, MB, etc.
The Olympic issue itself is what we in the legal business call a “red herring,” an issue raised to deflect attention away from a much larger issue. And that issue is correctly raised by Ted — i.e. that the big clubs just do not want to cooperate with the FIFA international calendar at all anymore. The Olympices are just the proverbial “tip of the iceberg.”
Although the G14 disbanded after it reached an agreement with FIFA and UEFA on compensation for players, the clubs are still working to stop the release of all players for international events. Arsene Wenger himself (and, being a Man U fan it paind me to reference him)said this spring that he envisions the complete end of international “friendlies” within the next few years.
So, FIFA can bring the hammer down, but the clubs can all withdraw from their national federations, withdraw from FIFA and form their own new governing body. The bottom line is money, as always. BIg money. And the clubs could put players in the awkward position of having to choose between lucrative club contracts and playing for their country as low-paid pros. In the end, we may very well see the return of true “amateur” football — which was the original Olympic ideal to begin with.
FIFA should pull out of the Olympics. There are more than enough international tournaments already organized by FIFA & the regional bodies.
Usually when a player does this with regards to their national team I just think they’re a big baby and should shut up.
But everything Trez has said is 100% right. Domenech is awful, and him taking unproven nervous children to the Euro tourney over Trez is ludicrous at best.
@ brett
To play devil’s advocate to your devil’s advocate, lets apply that to all international matches. No professional players should be allowed to play in international matches so they can protect their investment in the players.
problem here is if a team pays lets say 20M for a brazilian kid who is showing incredible promise on a historical aged team, but are forced to release him for the olympics… this kid goes to the olympics and plays hard…. ends up getting an injury the team will lose out on his performance for X amount of weeks… sometimes injuries can have a lasting influence on the kid’s ability to play…
then there was a 20M investment that was hurt, and not for your team’s sake…
dont get me wrong, i agree they should be released, im just playing devil’s advocate
FIFA already requires that clubs release u-23 players. There can only be 48 over-23 players called (3 for each of the 16 teams). Of those 48, less than half are top European club players. Many of those will be freed up within two weeks. Perhaps it makes sense to limit any national team to one player per club, or no over-23 player from a club releasing a u-23 player (or simply no over-23 players at all). But the current rules only effect a small number of players, and most top European teams can afford to due without one or two cogs for one or two matches. Evidence? The notion that Barcelona would stop Ronaldinho after publicly declaring that he isn’t in their plans is absurd.
Good.
Olympic soccer is stupid.
If they want soccer in the Olympics, make it in June and July.
What kind of crap is U-23 with 3 overage players?!?!?
I agree with the comment that all u-23 players should be allowed to participate…as for the older ones that is at the team’s discretion. However, if these national teams don’t get their big name u-23s then maybe the US or other countries have a chance. Wasn’t that why Nigeria won the tournament before (Atlanta, is it?). More chance for the little guys, I think. Does anyone know if Jozy will be allowed to play?
Kudos on Trez. Domenech is a joke.
Under-23 players should not be restricted by their clubs to participate in the Olympics provided they aren’t carrying an injury. Overage players should have to have permission from their clubs.
I agree with Ives. If FIFA doesn’t enforce this rule, then it sets a bad a precedent. The Olympics is still an official FIFA competition, so what if clubs refuse to release their players for qualifying games on FIFA dates? Or the African Nations Cup? Gold Cup?
Of course being based in Switzerland FIFA are always bigger Winter Olympic fans anyway 🙂
Blatter is a huge closet figuring skating supporter.
“Well, if FIFA doesn’t want the Olympics to become a joke…”
Are you referring to the same FIFA that makes sure the Olympic Soccer is an u-23 tournament so it doesn’t compete with the World Cup in importance?
Uh its the olympics exactly, the least important soccer event in the world.
i understand why the clubs do not want their players playing. injuries unfortunately can happen. do clubs get compensation if one of their players get hurt playing for the national team?
i agree with trez’s reasoning to retire. the coach should be gone tho.
i feel bad for trezeguet… but he’ll still have Juventus… 😀
I think it’s stupid that the clubs don’t let players represent their countries. I know all about the risk of injury, yadda yadda yadda. It’s the freakin’ Olympics people. Let ’em go.