Time To Blow The Whistle On Olympics Football
THE OLYMPIC IDEAL.
Are you getting excited yet? Can you feel the bubbling euphoria like a cascade of fireflies dancing within. Well, it’s almost that time again. Olympics mania is gearing up for what is usually billed as the greatest show on earth. From Late July to early August the supposedly greatest athletic specimens on our planet will congregate in the city of love which marks the culmination of the previous four years of blood, sweat and tears, and, seditiously for more than a few, a side order of pharmaceuticals, to engage in the ultimate accolade of being crowned Olympic Champion. Well, that’s theory anyway. The Olympic Ideal. Remember that little cliché’? One which embodies a kaleidoscope of human endeavour, where ethereal dreams converge amidst the pantheon of athletic prowess, igniting the crucible of unity and transcendence. Can you also remember when the Olympics were imbued with that noble trait of amateurism? A point in time when we watched these non-professional athletes like novice tightrope walkers, wobbling on the precipice of expertise, a fledgling attempting flight without yet mastering the art of the wings. Times have changed. Like so much in life, little can escape for ever the clutches of the money and the marketing men. Amateurism is sadly all but an extinct species.
FOOTBALL SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM THE GAMES.
But as much as I try to enjoy some of the Olympics, its’ attempt to become ever more relevant by insisting on the inclusion of what I consider non-sports just turns me off. Breakdancing! Give me a break. Now, I don’t know about you, but personally there should be no room for any sport in the Olympics where the gold the medallist is decided by a committee. Sports like Ice Skating and Boxing have been mired in numerous controversial decisions, and one is often left wondering if the judging panel are ever all actually watching the same event. And if a sweet, baby-faced fourteen-year-old gymnast arrives, and is declared the darling of the games then the rest of the gymnasts may as well pack-up and head for the nearest exit. But my particular gripe on this subject relates to the inclusion of professional football, and its relevance to this event which is akin to a feather adrift in a tempest, and a quixotic pursuit dancing on the fringes of purpose. My objection is based upon the simple observation that professional football adds zilch to the Olympics apart from swelling an already packed programme in a variety of distant satellite pub venues and cramming even more fixtures into an already crammed footballing calendar. Pre-season training kicks off well before the Olympics begin, and European pre-qualifiers come along quicker than Vinicius Jr. By the time, the first Olympic football fixture kicks off most football fans would have already gorged themselves senseless, and possibly into a state of severe melancholy that the Euros will inflict upon them as their respective nations are dumped out of the tournament.
A LACK OF CREDIBILITY
The entire Olympic footballing event therefore lacks any credibility because it is sandwiched between the end of the Euros and the beginning of the European club season. Fortunately, Great Britain, will not be fielding any team at this year’s Olympic Games, and have not done so since 2012. But here’s a little nugget of information for you. Did you know that Team GB have won this little golden footballing gong on three occasions? Obviously, this does not, and has never translated into cries that football has come home or an open-top bus parade. That’s because nobody cares enough to take such triumphs seriously. You might argue that the event’s appeal would increase if all the world’s best players were present. But of course, there is more chance of Donald Trump passing a lie detector test than Earling Haaland rocking up at the Olympic Village. Granted there have been one or two Galactico’s including Lionel Messi, Mo Salah, and Samuel E’to who were all Olympic Champions at one stage. But you have never and will never hear a football pundit ever refer to these alumni as Olympic Champions. Lionel Messi was part of the Argentina squad that won Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008. A man with countless Champions League wins, La Liga titles, and Balloon d’ors coming out of his ears, but when he is old and grey I doubt very much if he will regale his grandchildren about the time Argentina beat Nigeria’s U-23s in the Olympic Games.
LACK OF A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
Naturally I sympathise with the convenience of allowing footballers from certain countries every chance they can get to escape their military service, but unfortunately, the event has become little more than a U-23 glorified youth tournament. These young players are sent out on loan to the Olympics not to win it per-se but to gain knock-out football experience. In other words, the Olympic Footballing event is only a means to achieving an even greater end. These young, primarily, academy players may well be their clubs and countries stars of the future, but isn’t the Olympics supposed to feature only the finest of athletes of the moment, not those who are there purely because they happened to be born during the noughties. Moreover, some of these U-23 players are already multi-millionaires in their own right having secured lucrative contracts at some of the biggest football clubs on the planet. It can hardly be a level playing field when Spain, represented by Barcelona’s and Real Madrid’s collection of prodigious youth take on the Dominican Republic!
AN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL IS NOT THE PEAK OF A FOOTBALLER’S CAREER
And if you ever find yourself in a pub quiz which askes you name the player with the most goals in Olympic football history, then the obvious answer is Antal Dunai, also known as Dunai II a Hungarian former footballer with Yugoslav origins with 13 goals. The only satisfaction I have ever taken from the prospect of Olympic Football was back in 2012 when the then coach of the Great Britain squad, Stuart Pearce stirred up a controversy with his decision not to select Sir David Beckham as one of the three players over the age of 23 allowed on his 18-man squad. In all those Olympic events beamed into our living rooms this summer it could be argued that a gold medal performance represents the very peak of achievement in those events. However, this is not the case with football which in no way satisfies the criteria of an Olympic gold medal in that sport representing the pinnacle of achievement for the players involved? Football already dominates the sporting agenda throughout most of Europe and indeed the wider world, but not everyone enjoys watching or playing it. The Olympics represent an opportunity to increase participation and interest in a plethora of other sports, even if the term sport is sometimes stretching credulity, that do not get so much media attention. So next time can we please just leave football out of it?
