Football playing games with Olympics

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA have always had a fractious relationship and the time has surely come for football to decide what it wants to do with the Games.

Watching the rows of empty seats at most matches in the London 2012 men's tournament makes you wonder if there is actually enough interest in Games football for it to warrant a place in the Olympics.

The generally disappointing crowds at most matches not involving host team Great Britain are providing further ammunition to those who have been arguing for decades that football should not be included in the Games.

The reason for the long-standing discontent is obvious: football does not regard the Olympics as the pinnacle of international achievement essentially because the teams that do take part in the Games are under-23 selections with three guest over-age players.

So while the level of competition in swimming and athletics, for example, is universally regarded as the highest, that of football is at best second rate.

FIFA has its own championship to determine global supremacy and would never allow the Olympics to steal some of the World Cup's limelight by letting the qualified teams compete with their finest.

The IOC would love football to treat the Games more seriously and respectfully but it has come to the realisation that it cannot do anything about it simply because the Games needs football more than football needs the Games.

It is very hard to establish with a degree of precision how many people watch sport on television these days.

For this reason it is presumptuous to maintain that the World Cup still is the planet's biggest sporting event as it has been up to only a few years ago.

But one thing is certain: take football away from the Olympics and your cumulative television audience for the event will suffer a telling commercial blow.

Which is probably why the IOC will never kick football out of its blue riband event.

Football's relations with the Olympic movement have not improved since the sport was excluded in the 1932 Games in Los Angeles in an attempt to promote the growth of American football, according to Wikipedia.

The indignation towards Olympic football grew even more when Europe's Eastern Bloc countries used to take part in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s with so-called 'shamateurs' who were so well looked after by the Communist authorities that they could easily have passed for professionals.

In 1984 the IOC bowed to the inevitable and accepted professionalism in the Olympics but ever so protective FIFA still ordered qualified teams from Europe and South America not to pick players who had taken part in a World Cup.

The current compromise whereby teams must name an under-23 squad with a maximum of three guest players dates back to 1992.

So the world's most popular sport has always had its way, even at the cost of alienating itself from the rest of the world, and the status quo is not likely to change in the foreseeable future.

Having said that, two big questions remain unanswered: if FIFA does not necessarily need or regard the Games highly enough why bother entering at all? And how would developing countries like Australia cope without the prospect of Olympic football?

The answer to these two questions might well be intertwined because FIFA's bid to raise playing standards across its vast domain may have something to do with its reluctance to tell the IOC: 'ok, if you don't like us, we're out of here'.

Which of course is very commendable on FIFA's part.

Hang on a minute, giving lesser countries more chances to shine on a big stage might be a blatant attempt by FIFA heavies to stay in power … so let's just say that their approach on the matter is probably more opportunistic than commendable.

Australian football has derived great benefit from its flirtations with Olympism.

Olympic football provides our under-23s with a vital stage in their development before they enter the Socceroos sphere.

Australian football also has had a few memorable moments to cherish from its participation in the Olympics.

How can we ever forget Australia's 1-0 victory over Yugoslavia in 1988 or its 2-1 win over Sweden in 1992?

So Australian football would suffer greatly if Olympic football was to be swept away from underneath it.

So on one hand FIFA is being accused of snubbing an event that does not rate too highly even among the football family.

And on the other the Olympics provide a valuable stage for the development of lesser countries like Australia.

If FIFA were to do the improbable and pull out of the Games, such a scenario would not necessarily have to be detrimental to Australia's growth.

You see, if FIFA has a world championship for seniors, under-20s, under-17s, futsal and beach soccer, why not have a tournament every two years for under-23s?

What I have in mind is a proper tournament without this nonsense of over-age players who might add to the team's overall skill level but in so doing will deprive up-and-coming bright stars of a chance to boost their experience.

An under-23 world championship would spare the game the awkwardness of being treated like a persona non grata by the Olympic movement and give players from smaller countries a less glamorous but more meaningful tournament to aspire to.