U.S. can sit out tiff over soccer

U.S. can sit out tiff over soccer

European clubs fight release of Olympians

FIFA executives are huddled in Switzerland, still trying to decide whether to demand that professional soccer clubs release men's players for the rapidly approaching Summer Olympics in China. They were supposed to announce a decision weeks ago, then it was yesterday, now it's today.


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Regardless of the outcome, FIFA is meeting about the wrong thing. The broader issue, the one nobody wants to broach, the elephant in the locker room, is not which players should be in the Olympics but whether soccer should be in the Olympics at all.

It is a noble gesture, certainly, to include the world's most popular sport in the world's biggest sporting event. And the Olympic soccer tournament, which usually has its opening-round games scattered across the country, provides outlying cities a chance to participate in the five-ring experience.

But it only makes sense if the Olympic tournament is meaningful in the grand scheme of things and (not or) the best athletes can be there. And soccer fails to meet that standard.

The women send their best teams, but the Olympics fall the year after the Women's World Cup – or in this case, a mere 11 months. The result is each tournament devalues the other, and no one is sure which is the more important.

That could be remedied with a few FIFA schedule tweaks, by moving the Women's World Cup to a more suitable year.

The men's situation, though, might be beyond repair. The Olympics aren't meaningful because they don't feature the best players, and they don't feature the best players because they're not meaningful.

The solution, of course, would be to open the men's Olympic tournament to everyone. But that is disadvantageous to both FIFA and the International Olympic Committee, for the simple reason that the Olympics would dilute the importance of FIFA's World Cup and the global craze over soccer would dilute the importance of everything else in the IOC's Summer Games.

So the two sides have compromised. For years, Communist countries sent their best men's players and everyone else sent amateurs. In the 1980s, European and South American nations began sending pros, but only if they hadn't played in a World Cup.

In 1992, it was an all under-23 tournament. Since 1996, teams were allowed to add three over-aged players.

Now that isn't working.

Because the tournament does not fall on official international dates, when pro clubs are required to release players for national-team duty, FIFA has said the clubs are under no obligation to let over-23 players go to China. Fair enough.

AC Milan told Kaka, the 2007 world Player of the Year, he had to stay in Italy for preseason training instead of joining Brazil in its quest to win the only international trophy missing from its mantel.

The Dutch were forced to fill their over-aged slots not with Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder and Edwin van der Sar but three guys who weren't on their powerhouse roster from the recent European Championships: Gerald Sibon, Kew Jaliens and Roy Makaay.

Italy is taking only one over-aged player: Tommaso Rocchi, a 30-year-old journeyman forward who has played just three times with the Azzurri.

Some countries aren't bothering with over-23 players at all.

It gets worse. Several clubs are refusing to release under-23 players as well. The argument: It's not an official FIFA international event, so why should they?

Most notable is Barcelona and 21-year-old Argentine Lionel Messi, whom many consider the best player on the planet. Messi is on Barcelona's roster for its two-game U.S. tour next week; Barca also wants him for UEFA Champions League qualifiers in mid-August.

If FIFA demands that Barcelona put Messi on a plane to Beijing, Barcelona says it will appeal to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The men's Olympic tournament begins Aug. 7, the night before Opening Ceremonies, and CAS might not rule until a day or two before that.

Smiling at all this is Peter Nowak, the U.S. coach. His team is far from perfect – conflicts with World Cup qualifying ruled out picking any over-23 starters from the full national team – but at least it is together and relatively stable. FIFA's ruling today has zero impact on his team and can only cause further chaos for others.

The over-aged players are goalkeeper Brad Guzan, defender Michael Parkhurst and forward Brian McBride. Guzan and Parkhurst just missed the under-23 cutoff, and McBride, although 36, is considered the quintessential teammate. All three should fit in fine.

The rest of the 18-man roster, which includes Poway High alum Marvell Wynne II, has been together for months at training camps and qualifying. The Americans open against Japan on Aug. 7, followed by group matches against Nigeria and the Netherlands.

“From a team standpoint,” Nowak said, “I think it was a very good selection.”

There's also this: The Olympic tournament is a crazy and often unpredictable event. It's excruciatingly hot in China (mid-90s with 80 percent humidity in Beijing), and there are only two days between first-round games. It's mostly under-23 players. Rosters are limited to 18 players. FIFA and pro clubs are still feuding.

“That's the world we're living in,” Nowak said. “Be real about that. That's just how it is. These are the games we're going to play. Now let's go do it.”