Olympic Football: There’s No Such Thing as Bad Publicity
The club vs country Olympic row isn’t over yet. Though FIFA have made it crystal clear that clubs HAVE to release U-23 players for Olympic duty (and Sepp Blatter is surprised that there’s any confusion) Barcelona are still appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in a bid to get Leo Messi back from Beijing.
The CAS has promised to make a decision on Messi (as well as the similar cases of Werder Bremen’s Diego and Schalke’s Rafinha) by August 6th (one day before kick off).
And though this is all a bit undignified, and reveals a worrying lack of clarity at the top, in the long run it might be good for Olympic football.
As The Reuters Olympics Blog points out, the fact that some big name footballers are determined to go and play football in China sends a positive message about the event.
Digeo and Rafinha were both willing to risk the wrath of their clubs by going AWOL for the Olympics. And while Messi wasn’t - in Maradona’s words - man enough to go AWOL, he clearly wanted to be there.
The basic problem seems to be that South America, North America, Africa and Asia take Olympic football seriously. So, everywhere except Europe then. But Europe is where all the top players play, so none of the clubs grasp just how badly guys like Diego want to compete for gold.
But maybe - just maybe - the controversy around this year’s Olympics (which, correct me if I’m wrong, is more intense than usual) will raise the profile of Olympic football, and maybe one day we’ll see European players clamouring for their clubs to release them too.
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Comments
By diana | August 4th, 2008 at 11:21 am 
‘and maybe one day we’ll see European players clamouring for their clubs to release them too.’
Nothing surprises me anymore and I won’t be surprised (heaven forbid) if that happens.
Daryl, in another article I read (it’s in the link I will be posting later on here), FIFA will conduct a review so that we will not be seeing all these club-versus-country row come London 2012. And, one European can definitely testify about being part of the Olympic football tournament. That is Juergen Klismann.
I know the link you posted from the Guardian website did mentioned him but in the link I read, Blatter quoted what Klinsmann wrote in his book. Klinsmann took part in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Considering the honours he had won in his former playing career, an Olympic bronze tops it all off for him.
‘The moment I received the bronze medal in the Olympics in Seoul 1988 when Germany beat Italy it was my number one outstanding emotion’.
http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,3033_3909660,00.html
Posted from 
Singapore
By Lee | August 4th, 2008 at 6:38 pm Euros > Olympics. All the international stars want to support their colors in something else along with the World Cup, and the continent tournaments (with the exception of Europe) just don’t measure up. As far as the clubs go, the Olympics aren’t FIFA sanctioned, so there isn’t a forced club break for the Games. Hence, the clubs raise a furor about missing their stars for preseason matches and qualifying rounds.
By gaston | August 5th, 2008 at 9:51 am it is the job of a player to recieve all medals known on the national scale regardless of whether the olmpics are inferior to any officall recgonized tournament if that player wishes. just because the clubs are bulk of the salaries players doen’t mean they own them like cattle. nation first, club 2nd
Posted from 
United States
By kovosoccer | August 5th, 2008 at 12:45 pm I say let them play. Let the players play for their countries. It’s once every four years. It makes for more exciting soccer in the Olympics.
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