The Olympic Games are now less than a month away, as is the start of the football tournament which will be held in various cities around China. Apart from the World Cup, the Olympic tournament provides the most useful indication of the strength and potential of many national teams coming into the next 2 World Cups, in this case, 2010 and 2014 in South Africa and Brazil respectively. The Olympic tournament has a rich history, being the first major international tournament preceding even the World Cup. In fact, it was the success of this tournament that propelled FIFA to organise a world tournament of its own, and the rest, as they say, is history.

As the result of the creation of the World Cup, the Olympic tournament has over the years become devalued, and FIFA has contributed to this by imposing age restrictions and other types of controls. All of which is perfectly understandable, given that you would want to damage the prestige of the World Cup.

Nowadays, participating in the tournament is restricted to players under 23 years of age, and it perfectly complements FIFA’s other youth tournaments are under 17 and 20 level. Nevertheless, FIFA also allows teams to field 3 overage players and which is almost always taken up. Such a rule is considered nonessential and actually against the purpose of the tournament by many, including myself.

Now, before everyone starts writing their responses to this article, let?s analyse the reasons behind the creation of this rule as well as what it (supposedly) contributes and what it has (supposedly) contributed.

The overage player rule has generated controversy since it was introduced along with the under 23 rule in 1992 even though it was a move to give an equal chance to all teams. The problem lies with the overage players and whether they should be allowed to participate in the Olympics.

The financial windfall of allowing overage players to participate is significant. There no doubt that FIFA would want football to grab headlines in an event such as the Olympic Games and the presence of world-renowned players such as Riquelme and Ronaldinho assures that. Coaches and players are also favourable when it comes to the overage player rule, as the presence of older more experienced players in a team can only assist the younger players and help the team to perform better.

However, increased coverage and pleasing national football coaches has taken precedence at FIFA when planning youth tournaments. It may be ridiculous to consider the Olympic tournament a youth tournament but when put aside the World Cup, it certainly does possess such characteristics.

The fundamental feature of any youth tournament is the idea that it is a once in a lifetime opportunity, meaning that if you don’t grab it the first time, you’ll never again have the chance to try again. Both the Under 17 and 20 world championships are just like that and all players know they’ve got one chances to participate in such a tournament. On the other hand, when it comes to the Olympics, players will take the attitude that they will always have the opportunity to play in the tournament regardless of age. This attitude is not one to be encouraged in football. The Olympic tournament is and cannot be treated with such disdain and therefore the overage rule must be condemned to history.