Every four years the football world goes a little nuts. No, I’m not talking about the World Cup or the Euros, but the Olympics.
Unlike other major football tournaments, tactics and egos don’t dominate discussions instead the validity of the tournament provides ample talking points.
This got me thinking, why do we play football in the Olympics?
Not only is the tournament not run by FIFA, but there are a number of differences that work against traditional football norms.
For example England does not compete as a separate nation opting instead to share their chance at glory with the other nations of the British Isles under the banner of Great Britain.
To add to the mayhem in the men’s draw countries cannot select their strongest squads, instead under-23 squads with three overage players players are fielded.
At first glance Olympic football appears as though it is merely a second rate, unofficial and therefore pointless exercise.
However, it wasn’t always this way.
Prior to the FIFA World Cup the Olympics were the pinnacle of the footballing world, the only major global football competition that allowed nations to field a full squad and unleash the very best of their abilities, today the tournament is a shadow of its former self.
But is this actually bad?
Despite many football fans’ valid confusion about the tournament those very fans are missing something.
Olympic football isn’t about the football.
The Olympics represent the very essence of sportsmanship, of fair play and of never giving up.
The ‘Olympic Spirit’ is hard to put into words but it is a universal concept that has a special, pure place in the minds and hearts of sport fans around the world.
Football is the world’s most popular game and true fans understand the raw emotion that football evokes.
Football at the Olympics is unlike football in any other tournament.
It does not search for the World’s best team and it isn’t really official but what it does do is bring the sport back to its roots, playing for the fun of it and giving it your best shot.
Realist
Guest
Am with the people who say the IOC NEED FIFA more than FIFA needs the IOC! That alone should be proof that the FIFA World Cup surpasses the Olympics in MUCH OF THE WORLD! And I could go on with many more reasons why FIFA's showpiece wins hands down but I've got no time to....
jbinnie
Guest
ThanksFuss.The figures are a bit rough but serve to get the message over. The other point I forgot to make is that the "expenditure" side of the "balance sheet" would have been negligible,for, as in the USA 1984 investigation conducted by Adidas, no new stadiums were required to stage the football tournaments,all games being staged on existing grounds. jb
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Nice work, jb. And, in the 21st century, no analysis will be complete without casting an eye over the impact that a product/service has on social media. Well, the results are just in and Twitter has published data from the Olympic Games. In particular, Twitter found: "And which sports saw the most Twitter conversation? Whether you know it best as football, fútbol, soccer, or サッカー, the action on the pitch drove well over 5 million Tweets". Full story: http://blog.twitter.com/2012/08/olympic-and-twitter-records.html
Midfielder
Guest
Thanks JB
jbinnie
Guest
For those who are interested. The Olympic men's tournament is now finished and it would appear the 32 games reported on pulled a total of 1.436,650 fans to 31 games,(the bronze medal match does not yet show a crowd figure) giving an average attendance of 47,378 per match. With the average ticket price being around 30 GBP ,which equates to around 44 AUS$,the income from the 31 matches would be AUS $2,084.600 per game,or AUS $ 64,622,600 for the 31 matches.. Then of course there was the ladies tournament where they played 26 games. 25 of which pulled a total attendance of 648,000 for a match average of nearly 25000 per match.Using the same ticket price average (44 AUS$) the girl's 24 games (one attendance missing) would have pulled income of AUS $ 28,512,000 Football income from football ticket sales at AUS $93,134,000 !!!!. Olympics without football??? Seriously doubt it ever happens. jb
Marc
Guest
Just on the popularity of Women's Football in the USA. On 30th June Hope Solo made a great save in a friendly against Canada; the youtube clip now has almost 1.68m hits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c2lIgpPAH4&feature=related
Marc
Guest
Interesting. Lots of online comments from USA fans complaining that in their area, NBC showed the women's beach volleyball (played in bikini's apparently) instead of the Football gold medal decider. So that 4.35m could have been so much bigger ...
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
According to a Tweet from USNBC, the Women's Football final: USA v JPN has become the most-watched event in the network's history! Remember, this is women's football; and it's now the most watched event ever on the NBC Sports Network. But, of course, SOCKAH isn't popular in the USA. ;-) @NBCSportsPR 4.35 million watch Team USA-Japan gold medal soccer match on @NBCSN. Most-watched event in the history of NBC Sports Network #Olympics
Marc
Guest
hi Dave Just thinking after watching the final, that Japan is a great example for Australia. A few years ago the Nadeshiko and Matildas were pretty evenly-matched, second-tier teams behind the USA's & Germany's of the football world. They are now World Cup champions, Olympic silver medallists. The Nadeshiko have shown the way in competing against bigger, more athletic opponents like the USA, using sublime individual skills, quick passing and teamwork. Maybe the Matildas should be looking to develop these attributes. The Matildas play the USA in California on 16th September in an international friendly.
Marc
Guest
Yeah Dave After the Women's final 2.03m fans to football, but that doesn't include the attendance for the Women's 3rd place in Cardiff which hasn't been posted yet. With another 150k to attend the Men's 2 medal games, these games will overtake the Beijing Olympics.
MV Dave
Guest
Wonderful final and a real advertisement for the women's game...2-1 to the USA over Japan in front of 83,000 at the greatest sporting arena in the world Wembley. Japan were unlucky striking the woodwork several times but the US goals were quality. The womens game has come so far in such a short time...a pleasure to watch and no doubt the millions who watched around the world would be mightily impressed.
MV Dave
Guest
They must be getting close to the record attendance...over 2 million fans have attended the football at London 2012.
lolly
Guest
I like the under 23 thingie with footie. If T20 cricket ever makes it to the Olympics I hope they have a similar rule. When you are generally swamped by a sport in non-Olympic time, it's great to see the up and coming stars in a big tournament. I think it's one of the great things about footie at the Olympics, even if it makes it a bit odd in sitting alongside the idea of the best v the best.
Titus
Guest
I literally haven't seen a snippet of the Football. I've heard that the CAN/US game was a cracker. Planning to get Foxtel for the coming a-league season but kind of wishing I brought it forward to include the Olympics now.
Simon.
Guest
MV dAVE. I watched that match amazing it went to additonal time at 3-3 and America advanced but they only ever took the lead in the match with thirty seconds to go, there were millions of fist pumps. Go girls.
MV Dave
Guest
Geez Titus l almost feel guilty in saying l've seen most of it live on Foxtel. :). If you get a chance to watch the USA vs Canada Women's semi it will not disappoint...as dramatic and exciting a sporting contest as you will ever see.
Titus
Guest
Really hope we get to see both the mens and womens Football finals.
MV Dave
Guest
83,000 at Wembley for the Mehico vs Japan semi, 70,000 at OT for Brazil vs Sth Korea and 83,000 tickets already sold for the USA vs Japan Women's Final at Wembley. BTW the USA vs Canada Women's Semi at OT was one of the great contests of London 2012 finishing 4-3 to the USA.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
With 4 matches to play in the Football event at London 2012, a total of 1,230,818 have watched 28 games, for an average of 43,958. This means attendance for Football at London 2012 has now passed the Beijing 2008 average & is just behind the average attendance for football played at Los Angles 84.
MV Dave
Guest
Figures just released by the club confirm Chevrolet sponsorship of ManU is worth $536m over 7 years...wow!!!