News: No obligation for clubs to release their players

[aloisius]

That's debatable, and it might not hurt them either.

not having messi, rafinha and aguero for the cl qualifiers sure hurts as hell.

and werder will miss diego for the first weeks of bundesliga.

[Leopejo]

not having messi, rafinha and aguero for the cl qualifiers sure hurts as hell.

and werder will miss diego for the first weeks of bundesliga.
Barcelona reportedly (sorry, no link again, take this as wild speculation) cut a deal with the Argentinean Federation. Not only is Messi going to be insured, but also he won't be called to some less meaningful NT games in the future.

As important as Barcelona's qualification to the group stage is, considering the odds of that happening with or without Messi, this can be a good deal overall for Barcelona.

[Jeddy Rasp]

And by "most European nations", I assume you mean the four "home nations" of the United Kingdom that are ineligible to compete in the Olympics as seperate teams.

No, I mean most European nations. The fans in the USA take this "tournament" much more seriously than they do in Europe. There is a reason the youth soccer programs are called "ODP" (Olympic Development Program) back in the day had they been called what they really are "World Cup Development Programs" not many kids would have been able to take off school to attend them.

[argentine soccer fan]

barcelona would need to sell additional millions of messi shirts to make up for the losses they would suffer if they fail to qualify for the champions league.

and if any aditional messi shirts are to be sold because of his appearance in the olympics, it's more likely it will be argentina shirts .

not that the Olympics will make any difference in shirt selling. it just isn't a very interesting competition .



It is a very interesting competiton. And, I think if Messi does well he will become more of a household brand name for Barcelona, particularly in Asia.

As far as Barcelona and Champions, if they cannot get by their Polish opponent in the first round without Messi, then they have problems that are bigger than what even Messi can solve.

[Andrés_]

I was saying: How can FIFA have just "missed" addressing the status of the Olympics in the FIFA calendar? That's like forgetting to mention that clubs have to release their players for the U-19 World Cup. If FIFA didn't intend for the Olympics to be treated like a friendly, they should have stated so, long ago...

Ah, you are right there, big mistake from FIFA(or could it be intentional?).

Barcelona reportedly (sorry, no link again, take this as wild speculation) cut a deal with the Argentinean Federation. Not only is Messi going to be insured, but also he won't be called to some less meaningful NT games in the future.

If i recall correctly AFA had a similar agreement with Liverpool to free Mascherano for the olympics, of course the situation by then was different because he's an overage player.

[Auriaprottu]

There is a reason the youth soccer programs are called "ODP" (Olympic Development Program) back in the day had they been called what they really are "World Cup Development Programs" not many kids would have been able to take off school to attend them.

What's the difference to the school systems that give them the day off? The World Cup surpassed the Olympics as football's most important tournament almost 80 years ago.

[Jeddy Rasp]

What's the difference to the school systems that give them the day off? The World Cup surpassed the Olympics as football's most important tournament almost 80 years ago.

Not in the USA it didn't. When the program was first introduced most high school principles had never heard of The World Cup, hence ODP came into being in the USA.