Diego looks happy haha :P

And the updates to the Rafinha situation, along with Diego’s case – http://eurosport.yahoo.com/22072008/58/bundesliga-rebel-diego-joins-brazil-squad.html

So…I am expecting to see both guys later on today. It’s already Wednesday here in Singapore. On Monday, it was reported on the newspapers here that Dunga and the Olympic footall squad will be here en route to the Olympics (they will play a friendly against a local selection on July 28). After the Singapore stop, they will also be heading to Vietnam before the trip to China.

As someone from Singapore myself, I am actually having mixed feelings about this. The papers here are excited, as you can expect. After our football association confirmed the news over the weekend, that is. It might had been a real coup to see the boys from Brazil at my own backyard but, we have all these club-versus-country ‘mess’ going on. It might be the Olympic football squad but, as far as I can remember, this is the first time the samba boys are coming to my country.

What Vickery wrote:

In the here and now, the Olympic tournament represents a chance of claiming a title – and anyone who thinks South American football prizes fun and self expression over collecting trophies is seriously deluded.

The Olympic gold is the only title Brazil have never won, and they are desperate to put that right and complete the set.

Argentina, of course, are the reigning champions. But they still want more – especially as they have a new coach, 1986 World Cup midfielder Sergio Batista, in charge of their youth sides. A win will establish him in his new post.

Dunga, Brazil’s senior coach, is also in charge of the Olympic side, and with his team struggling so badly in World Cup qualification, success in China will do wonders for his prestige – according to some dark voices, it is the only thing which will keep him in a job.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7516842.stm

Quote:
Rafinha told GloboEsporte.com: “I wanted to part on good terms. The president (Josef Schnusenberg) did not release me. He told me the club is not obliged to do so. However, it is a mandatory as I clarified my doubts with the Brazilian Football Confederation.

“For the Germans, the Olympics have no importance, but they are very important to me because this is a title Brazil have never won.”

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/overseas/other/story_get.dor?STORY_NAME=international_feed/08/07/22/SOCCER_Ger-Bundesliga_Olympics_Night.html&TEAMHD=foreign

Rob, you could be hitting the nail on the head. Schalke have reportedly told Rafinha that they will terminate his contract if he really heads to Beijing next month. It’s in the same link.

Coming from Singapore myself, of course it’s nice to see the boys from Brazil right here in my country tomorrow Wednesday (the rumours of them possibly coming here first surfaced on Saturday and it was confirmed by our football association the following day). But then with all these news, I am having mixed feelings of seeing Ronaldinho and gang here. It didn’t really helped when I see such a report on Monday – http://www.todayonline.com/pdf_open.asp?id=2107SPR029

Oh well.

FIFA just said they should not that they have to make the players available. The Olympics aren’t part of FIFA’s official football calendar and only events mentioned there are legally binding. FIFA have actually confirmed that to the DFL and they would need to change their rules first, before clubs who withhold players could face any trouble. So clubs can and should but they don’t have to release their U23 players. But that doesn’t matter in Rafinha’s case anyway, it’ll just be interesting to see what Schalke will do now.