[Crackedpleasures]

This may sound weird, but am I the only one who really does not give the slighest damn about the olympics football tournament? I think it is quite worthless and totally uninteresting unless you are the type of football fan who wants to watch daily games regardless of their importance.

Why I consider it a tournament that means nothing:
- the real tournament that decides the best NT in the world, is the World Cup. There, teams send their best players and are motivated to the extreme.
- at the Olympics, teams cannot even select their best line-up due to age restrictions. On top of that, because the World Cup is rated a lot higher, many players simply don't care (just look at the ones who try to get out of the olympic squad to be able to play Champions League qualifiers)


I think if they really want to have the Olympics football tournament have more than just a symbolic value, then they need to merge the olympics and the World Cup so that the World Cup football becomes part of the Olympics. Cannot be that hard because both are organised every 4 years. Only in this circumstance, FAs will make the olympics a priority and it would be the biggest sporting event in the world.

Now, to me the olympics football is not more relevant than the average FA organising a small tournament to celebrate an event: nice for those who want to see as many games as they can, but in fact not much more important than the odd friendly game.

I have not really got a clue which teams qualified for the olympics, or which players to look forward to. The reason for not doing my research is a total lack of attraction to this tournament. Football is not really an olympic sport anymore because World Cup and such have become much more important. This is a huge contrast to sports such as athletics, tennis, etc where players still see the Olympic Games as one of the highest possible goals in their career ; in football this is not the case because other tournaments such as Champions League and World Cup became a lot more important.

 

[A10]

It is not about size.... audiences etc.

Olympics is Significant Enough for Countries and Football Associations to Respect that bringing with them proper set of players.

It is not their fault when under23s are so ****ing good these days.

 

[The Green One]

I think the Olympics are more valuable than the joke of a tournament that is the Confederations Cup.

 

[millwall rule]

I would like to see the olympics changed to just an under 23 tournament with no over age players but also make it a little more interesting with only home based players being able to attend. Would make for a very interesting tournament in my opinion

 

[LionMessi]

i think they made football in olympics under 23 so it wont diminish the importance of world cup

 

[candy-man]

i think they made football in olympics under 23 so it wont diminish the importance of world cup

I was thinking along the same lines, but they fear football would be the most important event at the olympics, if all the big boys are allowed to go + yeah i think 3 major tournaments in 4 years would diminish the WC and Euros/Africa/S.Amercian or Asian cup

 

[Rob]

The can't make the World Cup part of the Olympics for the simple reason the World Cup is a bigger event anyway.

 

[roadrunner]

But you could have a world football championship every 2 years, once called the World Cup and once called the Olympics, as in most other sports.

Then you could eliminate the continental championships and, instead, have a world championship every 2 years, under those 2 different rubrics.

 

[michaldinho]

The football, 100m and all those aside, is the best part of the Olympics lol

 

[WFA]

Olympics are worthless...but Im so desparate to wtch international football, that I still pay attention

 

[michaldinho]

if im honest to myself, i watch to see the over-23 players

 

[Crackedpleasures]

Thing is: Olympics aren't about compromising and adding sports under the condition that the older athletes stay at home. The olympic football tournament is artificial and against the original set-up of the Olympic Games. The Olympics are about bringing together the best athletes of every sport. So either football is an olympic sport and all countries send their best players (which indeed would make it a sort of world cup) or either football should not be an olympic sport at all. To see age restrictions is against the original intention of the olympic games.

And to see that even some younger players prefer playing CL qualifiers rather than Olympic games means that football and the Olympics are a bit of an artificial combination. Why not just make the tournament a world cup so that the best teams participate? The Olympics are supposed to be the biggest event in any sport, so why not just make the Olympic tournament the official World Cup recognised by FIFA as such?

 

[Crackedpleasures]

But you could have a world football championship every 2 years, once called the World Cup and once called the Olympics, as in most other sports.

Then you could eliminate the continental championships and, instead, have a world championship every 2 years, under those 2 different rubrics.

No, the current World Cup would cease to exist and the Olympic tournament would be sanctioned to be the new official World Cup. So there'd be just 1 tournament every 4 years but it'd be World Cup and Olympic Games at the same time.

I don't see a problem with the other sports being in the shadow. For example they could make the Olympics a 1,5 month event with 3 weeks football only, 2 weeks where football and other sports are going on at the same moment, and 3 weeks other sports only. I don't think merging the Olympic Games and the World Cup would need to be problematic. A bit of goodwill from FIFA and the Olympics committee is all it'd take.

 

[michaldinho]

Because we dont wanna share our football coverage with diving, or archery.

 

[michaldinho]

ok fair enuf

 

[Crackedpleasures]

Because we dont wanna share our football coverage with diving, or archery.

Archery is great. They should not shoot on boards though, but on an apple on top of someone's head. I am sure a lot of more people would watch this olympic discipline

 

[Rob]

Thing is: Olympics aren't about compromising and adding sports under the condition that the older athletes stay at home. The olympic football tournament is artificial and against the original set-up of the Olympic Games. The Olympics are about bringing together the best athletes of every sport. So either football is an olympic sport and all countries send their best players (which indeed would make it a sort of world cup) or either football should not be an olympic sport at all. To see age restrictions is against the original intention of the olympic games.

And to see that even some younger players prefer playing CL qualifiers rather than Olympic games means that football and the Olympics are a bit of an artificial combination. Why not just make the tournament a world cup so that the best teams participate? The Olympics are supposed to be the biggest event in any sport, so why not just make the Olympic tournament the official World Cup recognised by FIFA as such?

Because it isn't the pinnacle of every sport and because the world cup and even euros are bigger sporting events.

 

[Xavinho]

Thing is: Olympics aren't about compromising and adding sports under the condition that the older athletes stay at home. The olympic football tournament is artificial and against the original set-up of the Olympic Games. The Olympics are about bringing together the best athletes of every sport. So either football is an olympic sport and all countries send their best players (which indeed would make it a sort of world cup) or either football should not be an olympic sport at all. To see age restrictions is against the original intention of the olympic games.

The age restrictions are in place in an effort to honour the original concept of the Olympics as a non-professional competition. They can't have actual amateurs playing because the matches would be a joke, and anyone with any talent is playing professionally at some level. I think the age limit is an OK way of limiting the involvement of the superstar players, and capturing that spirit of the Olympics as being about equality between participants. The big nations don't dominate the game at Olympic level the way they do in unrestricted competition.

 

[Johan]

No, the current World Cup would cease to exist and the Olympic tournament would be sanctioned to be the new official World Cup. So there'd be just 1 tournament every 4 years but it'd be World Cup and Olympic Games at the same time.

Nope it wouldn't. FIFA wouldn't just let go of their price cow like that. I also see no reason players would suddenly care more about this new tournament than the old one. More likely both lose in value.

 

[kleber]

Thing is: Olympics aren't about compromising and adding sports under the condition that the older athletes stay at home. The olympic football tournament is artificial and against the original set-up of the Olympic Games. The Olympics are about bringing together the best athletes of every sport. So either football is an olympic sport and all countries send their best players (which indeed would make it a sort of world cup) or either football should not be an olympic sport at all. To see age restrictions is against the original intention of the olympic games.

And to see that even some younger players prefer playing CL qualifiers rather than Olympic games means that football and the Olympics are a bit of an artificial combination. Why not just make the tournament a world cup so that the best teams participate? The Olympics are supposed to be the biggest event in any sport, so why not just make the Olympic tournament the official World Cup recognised by FIFA as such?

Boxing doesn't have the best.

Well winning a medal for your country is always great and this is one of the best chances Argentina,Brazil have for gold medals.