How FIFA Does NOT Respect Both The Olympic & Football Spirit

China is now less than a month away from hosting the Games of the 29th Olympiad and at the same time, being the host country for the Olympic football tournament, the second biggest international tournament after the World Cup. In fact, this tournament gives an indication of how teams are placed for the following 2 World Cups, and as a result, it is not a tournament that is taken lightly. Who doesn't want to win a gold medal at the Olympics? One thing that many people are not aware of is that the Olympic tournament preceded the World Cup and it inspired FIFA to organise its world tournament. Hence, it is a tournament with a very rich history.

The establishment of the World Cup led to the Olympic tournament falling in importance and prestige, and this wasn't helped by FIFA deciding to keep the tournament exclusive to amateurs among other restrictions.

Nowadays, participating in the tournament is restricted to players under 23 years of age, and it perfectly complements FIFA's other youth tournaments are under 17 and 20 level. Nevertheless, FIFA also allows teams to field 3 overage players and which is almost always taken up. Such a rule is considered nonessential and actually against the purpose of the tournament by many, including myself.

Now, before everyone starts writing their responses to this article, let?s analyse the reasons behind the creation of this rule as well as what it (supposedly) contributes and what it has (supposedly) contributed.

Both the overage player rule and the under 23 rule were implemented at the same time in a move to give all teams the chance to compete on an equal footing. The amateurs only rule meant that the best players in the world did not have any chance of participating. Nevertheless, the overage player rule has generated a lot of controversy, so the benefits of such a rule must be analysed.

The financial windfall of allowing overage players to participate is significant. There no doubt that FIFA would want football to grab headlines in an event such as the Olympic Games and the presence of world-renowned players such as Riquelme and Ronaldinho assures that. Coaches and players are also favourable when it comes to the overage player rule, as the presence of older more experienced players in a team can only assist the younger players and help the team to perform better.

However, increased coverage and pleasing national football coaches has taken precedence at FIFA when planning youth tournaments. It may be ridiculous to consider the Olympic tournament a youth tournament but when put aside the World Cup, it certainly does possess such characteristics.

And the main characteristic of a youth tournament is its exclusivity. A young player growing up, knows that he will only get 1 chance to play in the U/17 tournament and 1 chance of playing in the U/20 tournament (I know there have been cases of players participating of more than one of each, but these are very rare). However, any player can grow up knowing that if they miss out on the Olympics, they may still be able to play in it in the future due to the overage rule. The prestige and exclusivity of the tournament is lost. The reason that was driving these players disappears. This is not what football is about. We all know that football is about taking your chances and the Olympic Games should not be any different.

Article Source: ArticlesMaker.com

About the Author: Author Antonio da Silva is one of the chief writers of SportsNewsFootball.com, a leading sports news football website renowned for its fearless and critical analysis of the major stories affecting the beloved game of football. 

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