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.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

ok fair enuf

 

Both are bigger in terms of viewers, yeah. World cup by quite a bit.

 

The Olympics won't be the most worthless tournament in football as long as the UEFA Cup and the Copa Sulamericana exist.

And fans may consider the Confederations' Cup worthless, but NT managers definitely don't - because it's a precious extra time that they get to prepare their teams for the WC that happens one year later. In today's world of ridiculously-brief training periods for NTs, getting that precious full month to gather all your players and develop your system is a gift from heaven that any sane NT manager would be thankful for. But of course, most fans only care about bragging rights and immediate results, so a preparatory tournament like the Confed Cup looks expendable from their perspective.

 

Bloody frustrating having to lose Mascherano and Lucas to this it is very well respected in south america and africa but **** them why does it have to be in the middle of the season atleast delay the seasons start or something.

Also probably Babel aswell and maybe even Insua

 

Support a Dutch club :stuckup:

They have with the Dutch league.

Guess they never will with the English ones with Great Britain never going to the Olympics as a football team.

 

The Olympics footy tournament should be fun. Holland with Roy Makaay and its back to back European u21 championship winning team against the South American greats plus who else.

btw UEFA Cup isn't that bad this season with AC Milan amongst others. The season Boro were in the final I agree it was ridiculous...their route to the final lol

 

btw UEFA Cup isn't that bad this season with AC Milan amongst others. The season Boro were in the final I agree it was ridiculous...their route to the final lol

It's not the lack of strong/traditional teams that makes a tournament worthless; if it were, the Olympic games couldn't possibly be called worthless, as they will have teams like Brasil, Italy and Argentina.

The UEFA Cup and the Sulamericana are more worthless than the Olympics because they're nothing more than consolation prizes for those who failed to reach the CL and Libertadores.

 

The Copa Sulamericana doesn't even get mentioned overhere

if it were, the Olympic games couldn't possibly be called worthless, as they will have teams like Brasil, Italy and Argentina.

oii mention us p

Will Italy btw be starting with Pelle?

 

oii mention us p

Oh yeah, there will be other teams too.

 

Do Spurs lose players?

Think they should make it single nations for England so that they can give their youngsters something to learn in a big stage seeing as they don't get a chance to play for england because the usual guys always do.

It's a shame that the GB thing is stopping them from doing so.

 

Do Spurs lose players?

Nah, none. Perhaps Zokora if the Ivory Coast decide to take him as one of their overage players (wouldn't if I were IC manager) but looking at the sides taking part, we should be safe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_at_the_2008_Summer_Olympics_-_Men's_qualification

 

When you qualify for the Olympics you care. When you don't its just easier for you to say you dont care.

 

To be honest I don't even know who qualified. It somehow doesn't really interest me. The format with age restrictions comes across very artificial to me. I am not sure who qualified, guess it will be not that different from the regular world cups?

UEFA Cup worthless? I find it a lot of fun, more fun than the CL usually. UEFA Cup allows you to discover some new teams on their way to fame, it is a lot less predictable than the other tournaments (including some NT tournaments apart from the Euro). I don't see how it would be a consolidation price if you look at the names of the clubs in it?!

 

You really have no idea about worthless. I have seen UNCAF tournaments, actually I have attended to UNCAF tournaments...what's UNCAF? It's the small tournament were the central america NT face each other, in order to attend to the Gold Cup, out of 7 Central American nations 4 will qualify directly (the 2 that are always left out are Nicaragua and Belize) and the 5th will go against the 3rd, 4th or I don't what place of the Caribbean tournament (which is worse, but I never got a chance to see it).

If I'm honest, even if as a tournament it is worthless and extremely low quality, I do enjoy it, as well as I enjoy every football tournament there is.

BTW the Olympics are a great oportunity for smaller nations or non traditional ones to have a chance for something big. Paraguay won the silver last time, Nigeria won gold a decade ago, Cameroon 8 years ago, East Germany won the gold...Costa Rica has beaten Italy and Portugal there, Honduras either tied or won against Italy, Iraq ended top 4 last time around.

 

ronaldinho and robinho are in brazilian squad for olympics, i thought it was under 23 only??

 

2-3 players can be above 23. In Brazils case, it seems to be those (dont count on Ronaldinho playing much), and for Argentina, its Riquelme (dont see any point of why he is there), Mascherano and Burdisso.


And regarding the thread, NO, its far from worthless. Watching it since 96, and there have been charming football and winners as mentionned above. Its quite an interesting tourno that keeps delivering.

 

If I remember right Britain are entering a team of non-professionals >_>

 

Just coz YOU don't wanna watch it doesn't mean it's pointless and should cease to exist. Many people enjoy it and it's a great way for young players, who haven't gotten a chance to play in the euros or WC yet, to win something for their country, and for smaller football nations to win something. There are many team sports in the olympics that have world cups that are more important.