WILL CLARK - Olympics should consider giving football red card
HAVE you been watching the football at the Olympics?
If you haven’t, don’t worry, you’re not alone, as neither have I. I couldn’t even tell you who is in the football tournament at the Olympics without looking it up, never mind who won it. If it’s finished yet. I’ll check for later on in the article.
I am a huge fan of the Olympics and have been watching it every night so far. Even the dressage which I thought was fantastic. Don’t think dressage is a sport? You try getting a horse to dance to Livin’ La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin and tell me otherwise.
While it is the biggest sporting event on Earth, it is a golden opportunity for sports to showcase themselves on the world stage. In fact for many sports, it is probably their only chance to be broadcast to a worldwide audience before disappearing into obscurity for another four years.
The Olympics are special, and for most sports, the grandest stage of them all with the biggest prize on offer to their athletes.
This can’t be said for football however. The football competition consists of under-23 men’s teams, with three over-age players allowed, so hardly showcases the best players in the world.
Which is maybe why the tournament has gone under the radar with so many. The semi finals were due to take place on Monday night with France facing Egypt and Morocco taking on Spain.
While it may be a great opportunity for those young players to compete at an Olympic Games, is football undervaluing the Games themselves with how it treats the tournament?
The Olympics will never be treated in the same way by football as the World Cup or continental competitions such as the European Championships or Copa America.
Football is only there to be part of the Olympics, but nobody could say that it embraces it. For me, the Olympics should be the greatest prize available to any sport, and if it isn’t, it shouldn’t be part of it.
There could be the same argument made for sports like golf and tennis. There is far more prestige in tournaments like The Open and Wimbledon than the Olympics. However, at least in golf and tennis, the best players in the world are competing.
You could see how much it meant to Novak Djokovic winning a gold medal on Sunday, saying it was the only major thing left for him to win in his career.
In golf, world number one Scottie Scheffler claimed the gold medal, so despite the Olympics not being the biggest prize in their sport, at least their top athletes are taking part.
Rugby Sevens has also been a massive success at the Olympics and it can be argued it is now the biggest tournament in the Sevens format.
Scotland, England and Wales all scrapped their Sevens programme to create a Great Britain team on the World Sevens Series, and be good enough to win the Olympics. However, Great Britain men’s team failed to qualify for the Olympics, but that is a different argument.
The Olympic football final will be taking place on Friday, but it is unlikely to hold much interest with me.
The Olympic Games is the greatest show on Earth and deserves to be treated as such with all sports that take part. I am not convinced football shows enough respect to the Olympics and perhaps it needs to change its attitude. Or give football the red card altogether for Los Angeles in 2028.
