FIFA insists it can enforce Olympic release rule
FIFA insisted Monday that it is entitled within existing rules to compel the release of young players, despite losing a court ruling to Barcelona and two German clubs two days before the start of the 2008 Beijing Games tournament.
Citing its player status regulations, football's world governing body said that "a duty to release players exists on the basis of a special decision by the FIFA executive committee."
FIFA lawyers believe that clause empowered president Sepp Blatter to pass a compulsory Olympic release rule last Friday that affects only under23 players.
However, the 200member European Club Association said Monday it was not consulted by FIFA and will consider its response at a scheduled board meeting next week.
"The ECA is very surprised by this decision. The Olympics was not supposed to be in the calendar, and now release is compulsory,
Barcelona Jersey," the group said in a statement.
The disagreement and potential rerun of a fouryear legal case stems from the Olympic tournament being left off FIFA's international match calendar, which tells clubs when to release players for national duty.
In August 2008, the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed a "special decision" that FIFA said its emergency committee had made days before the Beijing kick off.
The court upheld an appeal involving Schalke, Werder Bremen and Barcelona, which initially blocked Lionel Messi from representing eventual gold medalist Argentina. The Spanish club won the case but conceded to Messi's wish to play.
Many clubs in Europe object to the Olympics because matches clash with lucrative offseason tours of the United States and Asia, Champions League qualifying rounds and early rounds in some national leagues.
The 16nation London tournament will kick off July 26 and includes Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Uruguay, which will all select 18player squads with a maximum of three players older than 23 allowed.
"All member associations will receive a circular letter shortly informing them accordingly" of the compulsory rule, FIFA said in a statement.
Switzerland and Belarus have also qualified, and Olympic squad lists must be finalized by July 6 when those countries' likely Champions League representatives FC Basel and BATE Borisov will be preparing for matches. The Champions League third qualifying round is scheduled for between July 31Aug. 8, during the Olympics.
FIFA hopes that announcing its release rule four months ahead of the games will prove a solid legal defense if any club returns to CAS with a challenge.
Four years ago, FIFA's executive committee appealed at its March meeting for "good will from clubs in releasing players aged over 23 to take part" in Beijing.
The CAS ruling later showed that Blatter wrote to member countries two weeks before the tournament acknowledging "confusion," while insisting it was always mandatory for under23 players to accept their Olympic callup.
The court rejected this argument, noting that FIFA had felt it necessary to add the 2004 Athens Olympics on the match calendar. The subsequent fouryear calendar did not include the Beijing Olympics.
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