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The Olympic Summer Games is seen as the pinnacle for most of the 28 sports that take part. For the vast majority of participants, an Olympic gold medal proudly stands as their sport’s highest accolade.
There are exceptions, but none more glaring than football.
The sport was introduced to the Olympic program at the second of the Modern Games at Paris in 1900, however in that year and the following Games in St Louis, the tournaments were contested by club rather than national sides.
At London in 1908, a six-nation tournament was sanctioned by FIFA, the sport’s governing body. For many Olympiads to come, nations had to field teams comprised solely of amateurs in keeping with the IOC’s ideals. This caused issues for FIFA with many ‘minnows’ achieving more success than countries where the sport had powerhouse status.
At the time Uruguay won consecutive gold medals in 1924 and 1928, it was clear the rules regarding player eligibility meant there was not an accurate representation of the sport’s strength or quality globally, given only amateurs were allowed to play
As football became more universally professional the gap between the standard at FIFA’s World Cup (inaugurated in 1930) and the Olympic Games became even starker. From day one, the World Cup was the sport’s marquee event, with the world’s leading professionals capturing the hearts and minds of myriad spectators.
As time marched on, the nations who featured at the pointy end of the World Cup seldom featured in the medal matches at the Olympics. The Olympic tournaments became the stronghold of the Eastern Bloc nations which cleverly circumvented the amateur eligibility clause by using players sponsored by the state, which meant they were effectively professionals but stayed within the IOC’s criteria.
Between the first post-war Games in London in 1948 and Moscow in 1980 a total of 27 medals were decided with all bar four being won by countries from behind the Iron Curtain.
Of the 24 medals awarded at eight World Cups in the same time period, only three were won by Eastern Bloc nations.
For the 1984 Los Angeles Games the IOC decided to loosen its eligibility criteria and allow professional players to take part in the tournament.
This move was anathema to FIFA which was determined to keep the World Cup as the sport’s pinnacle event so it decided to apply its own criteria to Olympic qualification.
Any nation outside UEFA and the South American Football Federation were allowed to choose any professional player whilst the former pair could only nominate players who had never represented their country at World Cup level.
Then, ahead of the Barcelona Games in 1992, FIFA made its most radical eligibility decision when it decided that only three players in every squad could be over the age of 23.
With the stroke of a pen FIFA had consigned the Olympic gold medal for football to the level of an under-age international tournament. The decision has cheapened that Olympic gold medal tremendously.
Football is the only sport at the Olympics that has imposed an age ceiling. It is clear why FIFA chose this path as it guaranteed the unchallenged status of the World Cup, but diluting an Olympic gold medal is an extremely unsatisfactory way to do it.
The IOC can live without football.
It is unlikely that its massive television rights would be greatly affected by not having football at the Games.
American network NBC once again contributed over half of the IOC’s broadcast revenue at the 2012 London Olympics by shelling out US$1.18 billion – a figure that would not be substantially reduced should football be given its marching orders.
For mine, I don’t think tennis deserves a berth at the Olympics either, as the status of an Olympic gold medal does not equate to the trophy that is presented at any of the four annual grand slam tournaments – a fact evidenced by the number of high-profile names to have bypassed the Olympics since the sport was reintroduced in 1988.
The same can be said for golf which is on the schedule for Rio de Janeiro in two years’ time.
However, there is a fundamental difference – neither tennis nor golf put age restrictions on participation as football does.
I dare say that even some very ardent and passionate followers of the World Game could not name the two finalists at the London Olympics two years ago.
Yet almost all of them could tell you that Spain and the Netherlands battled it out at the final of the 2010 World Cup at Johannesburg.
The Olympics should be the preserve of the very best that sport can offer and football by its own design has denied that with its own selection criteria.
It is time that it was omitted from the Olympic schedule.