Olympic soccer is a joke. Inane rules about player ages on rosters means that few of the world's best players will play, so it's no more than a glorified U-20 tournament.

I remember our youngsters managed to draw with Cameroon in Sydney, who went on to win the whole tournament. And how Iraq finished 4th in Athens. Go figure.

It is a complete farce. 16 teams randomly (apparently random at least) plucked from the world, stripped of the majority of their players, and told to play in front of small crowds of the disinterested. What a completely pointless and costly exercise. Football has no place at the Olympics. It should be replaced by a Diplomacy tournament :)

Diplomacy as Olympic Medal Event in Summer 2016! Yes! Let's do it!

It's not really random, the three Euro teams (not counting the host Britain) were picked from the top three finishers from UEFA U-21 last year for instance. It might be fun to watch in countries that have no chance of playing in some actual tourney like World Cup.

I think the Olympic tournament is fun because it gives some lesser soccer powers a chance to get some international recognition (Iraq, for example). But mostly its a farce. My Olympic viewing is dominated by decathlon and kayaking.

@uly - It may be fun, but the Olympics are about finding the best of the best in the amateur world. Fun doesn't mean anything.

I don't think Messi and Agüero played for free when they were 20, Draugnar ;)

Decathlon and kayaking? Those are/were some pretty Central European-dominated sports you're watching, 2ndWL, good for you!

Getting to watch obscure and immensely entertaining sports is the best part of the summer Olympics. Handball and badminton? I'll watch that shit all month!

Now, you can watch handball anytime you want, just try some Barca game.

I like watching it, but I'm not going to out of my way to watch it if it's not on TV or easily streamed online. Besides, if I watched all the time, I wouldn't care as much every four years. As long as those sports don't interfere with USA Basketball, I'm happy.

@uly - Did I say free? I said amateur. A certain amount of money comes by in endorsements and other means. None fo the top tier gymnasts don't get paid or at least get a free ride the whole time they are doing their thing.

Show me a football player participating in the last Olympics who wasn't a professional at that time. I think you have a rather warped view of the kind of sportsmen competing in the Olympic games.

if anything its useful for the U-23 players themselves. Its a glorified combine for scouts in a sense

The men's event is a U-23 tournament. It's still a serious event, it's just not an event that features the "real" senior national team. If you aren't intererested in the U23s, then you aren't interested in this.

That said, all of the associations had genuine qualifying tournaments. The teams aren't picked at random. Good teams that aren't included aren't there because they lost.

Admittedly, US Men's Basketball is all pros now as well. The Olympics sort of let that fly some years past when it was pointed out that the Eastern block "amateurs" were anything but. But the point is still that the olympics are about finding the best, not about "it would be fun to see". It would be fun to see lingerie models mud wrestling, btu it would hardly be worthy of the name "athletic competition".

We are talking Olympic football here. The event has superficial restrictions aimed specifically at NOT ALLOWING the best players to compete. There are BARELY ANY amateurs participating in the tournament. If you wonder why I had to use KRELLIN on you, it's because you have NO IDEA what you are talking about TODAY. Be so kind and stop posting BULLSHIT in these forums. Come BACK TOMORROW when you get back in the shape.

WTF does back in the shape mean anyhow? And I'm talking the olympics in general and the stated goals of the organization and the athletes. Clearly soccer does not demonstrate the best. The IOC's "football" committee cleqarly fails in this regard. But to say "it would be fun to see" is not what the olympics are about. That's all I'm saying. The competitive spirit and drive to be the best is what the olympics are about. if the IOC is limiting soccer by making it be only second rate pros, they do a disservice to the olympics. Period.

In fairness though, I'm not sure that FIFA has a ton of interest in the Olympics being any more serious than it is.

The national teams have enough other big international events without dealing with the Olympics. Euro 2012 is in June, which is going to include most of the best players in Europe. There's just a ton of other stand alone international football events pretty much every year. Professional soccer doesn't need the Olympics in the sense that professional track and field does.

I suspect FIFA feels it's better this way.

Maybe football should be eliminated from the summer olympics then. At least men's should be.