It requires an imagination more romantic than mine to embrace the claims that the involvement of a Great Britain football team in the 2012 Olympic Games would electrify the nation.
My skepticism has nothing to do with the resistance of the Celtic minorities of the UK to a concept that might imperil their independent status within FIFA.
- B/R Ticket Guide
I simply believe that Olympic events are never truly great, truly enthralling, unless they represent the absolute pinnacle of competition in a sport.
Disciplines such as athletics and swimming meet that criterion, but football must always be a sideshow at the games.
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Alby Jnr
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3 months ago
Uruguay sport 4 stars on their jersey. Apart from the two world cups they consider the two Olympic wins as world titles.
I also think the FIFA draw for the World Cup is totally bias as are the seeded teams (Spain for example). Also the number of teams from each continent is bias as well.
I also believe that certain teams are favoured at the World Cup including Brazil of course in order to increase sales and overall revenue.
More and more I have come to love Olympic football as a purer version of what world football really is.
The so called `better teams` never seem to do well and Nigeria beating Brazil was one of the most memorable matches I have ever seen in any kind of football at any level.
That match changed football forever and subsequently flooded Europe with African players.
from 3 months ago
I think S is right in many ways. Olympic football is as pure as it comes. It is a great combination of national pride and youth. I think the latter being one of the most important keys. These are basically U23 teams (save for the three overage players). And because of that they play with nothing-to-lose and everything-to-gain attitudes which leads to great competition.
3 months ago
I believe that because the World Cup is regarded as the premiere competition in football as far as playing for your country, the Olympics will always be overshadowed. Even though many Olympic football matches have led to upsets such as the Nigeria v. Brazil match, those teams are still not fielding the "best" players in their respective countries. Its not just football that suffers this in the Olympics. Baseball, and I think for a while basketball had certain limitations on who could and couldn't play at these games. With baseball, in 2005 the creation of the World Baseball Classic which fielded the "best" players in each countries, should be considered a much better venue than baseball in the Olympics. It is pretty much the same with futbol. But if you look at futbol in the Olympics, as a competition who fields the best young players (U-23) with the three overage players in the world, then nothing rivals it. But if you want to see who is the best team in the world, then the World Cup is still the competition to look forward to. And even if your not a fan of Brazil futbol, it is understandable that they are heavily favored, as they continue to produce in that competition as well as the other major countries out there from their respected continent. Is it not fair to say that the USA basketball group, the team to beat in any world competition?
Am I still going to watch Olympic Soccer with the same intensity of watching a World Cup match? Absolutely! I wouldn't want to miss watching someone like a Messi, or a Robinho take their game to the next level as these players will eventually lead their respective teams in future World Cups. Plus it also shines spotlights on "lesser" known countries like Nigeria, which as "S" stated, changed football forever. That is very exciting that can only improve football as a whole.
Also I just wanted to add something that has confused me ever since the World Cup in Germany. During the competition, I was looking at ESPN's ranking of countries to advance deeper in the competition, USA was one of the teams heavily favored to advanced. I mean they made it seem like they were on the same level as Brazil, France, and Italy. At first I laughed at this, and then for some reason I was quite upset that they would do this. I lost a lot of respect for ESPN's biased reports after that.
3 months ago
Swimming and running must remanin the headline events in the Olympics as these are the pinacle of their sport meanwhile the Olympics is only third in many players lives, behind the World Cup and Euro's
from 3 months ago
Maybe not third, but second. The problem with the Olympics is that it is an Under-23 tournament, with some players who can participate who are above the age of 23 - so perhaps, that is why people don't follow the Olympics football tournament so closely.
from 3 months ago
In Europe it is definitely third behind the World Cup and the Euros and I would say it is third in Africa too also behind the WC and ACON. As for South America I’m not so sure the importance/prestige that they rate the Copa America – I guess there’s not room for 14 stars on the Uruguay shirt for their Copa America triumphs!
The main problem as I see it is that this isn’t really worked into the football calander propely, i.e. it clashes directly with the start of the season in Europe and the seasons are all halfway through in South America. This obviously leads to clashes over players such as Robinho, Messi, etc and will undoubtedly rob the tournament of some great players.
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