The international football association FIFA has ruled today that Barcelona should allow Barcelona player Lionel Messi to take part in the Olympic Games of Beijing with the Argentinian national team next month.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta has announced that the club will go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland (something that had already been done by Werder Bremen and Schalke in the dispute regarding Diego and Rafinha), but it is nevertheless expected that Messi will travel to China tomorrow.
This is the official statement on the FIFA website:
This is the official statement on the FIFA website:
Single judge rules on release
The single judge of the Players' Status Committee, Slim Aloulou (Tunisia), decided today, 30 July 2008, that the release of players under the age of 23 for the Men's Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008 is mandatory for all clubs. Previously, on 29 July 2008, the FIFA Emergency Committee also took a decision in the same sense.
The decision of the single judge was taken after FIFA had received requests from the German football association on behalf of its affiliate club FC Schalke 04, as well as from SV Werder Bremen, FC Schalke 04 and Spanish club FC Barcelona directly, in connection with the release of their players under the age of 23 for the Men's Olympic Football Tournament. The single judge, while referring to the situation of the players belonging to the clubs in question, deemed that he should address the question of the release of all players under the age of 23 for that competition.
The single judge determined that the international match calendar is not of relevance in establishing whether clubs are obliged to release players for the Men's Olympic Football Tournament.
In this regard, in view of the longstanding and undisputed practice (since 1988, clubs have always accepted the release of under-23 players for the competition), he deemed that recourse to customary law is justified. The FIFA Emergency Committee also mentioned this principle in its decision.
In addition, the single judge took into account the decision of the FIFA Emergency Committee, which recalled that in 1988, the FIFA Congress had determined that all players up to the age of 23 were eligible to play in the Men's Olympic Football Tournament. The FIFA Emergency Committee also stated that the same principle had been confirmed at the FIFA Congress in 2006.
Finally, the single judge stated that taking part in the Olympic Games is a unique opportunity for all athletes of any sporting discipline, and that it would not be justifiable to prevent any player younger than 23 from participating in such an event if his representative team had qualified.
The decision was notified to the parties today, 30 July 2008.
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21 comments:
i think we should let him go i am 100 percent sure we can get to the champions league without messi and country is more important than club
does anyone knows, can messi play today against fiorentina or not?
It is believed that he will play this evening and then fly to Beijing tomorrow. No official confirmation though.
NOUBARCA said.....
I think Barca should have allowed the dude. If we cant go through without messi, then the board should check itself considering who the opposition who be (a weak team). Argentina wld never sell him to another country. But Barca might still sell him someday. R10, Maradona, Rivaldo, Stoitchkov, Ronaldo.. Bottom line, YOur country means more than a club.
Long live Barca
were can i watch the barca v Fiorentina match live
Yay!! Now I can watch Garay, Gago, Riquelme, Di Maria, Aguero and Messi play together! Can't afford to miss this. Vamos Argentina!!
Im all for country over club but LEts just hope this doesnt take a huge toll on messi and he DOESNT get injured a few weeks into the new la liga season.
Messi can play today.The players in the squad are Valdés, Jorquera, Pinto, Alves, Piqué, Márquez, Puyol, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Eto'o, Henry, Sylvinho, Crosas, Messi, Abidal, Touré, Bojan, Hleb, Keita, Cáceres, Sergi Busquets, V. Sánchez, V. Vázquez, Jeffren and Pedro.
Of course country is moore important than club. But todays football is all about money and success. Therefore one could easily understand the position of Barca. They are the ones paying his salary and they are the ones risking it all in this case. If Leo gets injured in the olympics the blow is mostly on Barca, not Argentina. And concidering the current situation at barca, the board cannot afford to be put in a situation where Messi's participation is the key to CL. In this case though I belive that Barca should go through to the CL with or without Messi. And in all honesty I think the board also do that. It must be the risk of injury that concern them. Concidering that Messi has had several injurys in the past, the risk of getting injured again is impending. Especially when there has been no proper pre-season. Let's just hope that this does'nt effect the relationship between the two parties. That would be a disaster.
It's actually a chance to try out how team function without him. I mean he won't be able to play every single game throughout a year, right? Just hope he doesn't get injured.
We arent gonna get the big clubs for the preliminary and if we cant even qualify, lets just kiss our season good bye.
this is a very good chance to see if barca can do without messi...messi is great but barca is greater..to prove this they must go to war without him...if barca is not able to play well and win without messi..then we we are going to have a very "BIG" problem this season
I understand barca s position as money and UCl is very important..but i hink right thing is happening in the end as messi will play for argentina in olympic. argentina is defending gold medal champion in olympic, and this is messi s probably last chance to play in olympic as under 23.
and we have a great squad other than messi, and we shud be able to win thru the preliminaries without him. football is a team game, and that shud be our motto..definitely messi is huge for us, and his presence in the field makes a lot of difference..but the other players shud proove their worth too, and football is not one man game, not atleast after maradona retired..
I hope we can go through..
At first I was much like most of you, upset and bewildered as to why Barcelona wouldn't allow Messi to play for his beloved country, Argentina in the Olympics?
But the more I thought about it, (and came to my senses) the more I "understood" Barcelona's hardline stance. Before I go any further let's keep in mind that almost all the top European teams are digging their heels in with their premier players so Barcelona are hardly alone in the position they are taking.
The fact remains that this has much less to do with an actual "game" (i.e. Champions League Qualifier) than the "principle" - which is that Messi is technically under contract with Barcelona and thus should honor that contract to the fullest degree.
Imagine for a moment if Messi was to suffer a significant injury while playing at the Olympics. What would the Argentine Football Federation and the Olympic Committe be able to say to Barcelona? "Umm, sorry about that. It was terrible bad luck?" And of course we could in effect kiss Barcelona's season goodbye!
I know what you're going to say - that Messi could just as easy injure himself in pre season training or in the Champions League Qualifier. While that may be true I'm sure Barcelona would be able to "stomach" the fact a lot easier, knowing that Messi was injured for "the cause" rather than being 1000 miles away playing in an "amateur" tournament that isn't even on par with the World Cup!
So I see both sides of the argument here. I'm not knocking Messi for wanting to play for his country, if anything it's admirable. But I also understand Barcelona's position as well. I think we would all agree, that Messi is the "engine" that makes Barcelona run. As we witnessed last year, the minute he went down we all had a lump in our throats and thought the season was lost for good. Messi is more than just an "iconic" figure for the club, at this moment, he IS the club (as far as pinning our hopes for a championship season goes.)
btw, messi has already flown out according to some reports.
btw, messi has already flown out according to some reports.
Nevermind, Pep is right, he is playing today.
I'm gonna see Barca play this Sunday, Aug. 3rd in Chicago...any chance you guys think Messi will be there???
guys does anyone know were i can get the ticket for the game in Chicago coz i leave close and i would like to go and see that match , and is the game on 3rd or 4rth of August , on Barca web is stated on 4/08/08 so it's Monday , please anyone have information about this game , ticket and everything let me write on my email ba-beka@hotmail.com all infos are welcome about this match , thanks
i should barca should let this guy go bcos this is a big oppotunity for him to parcitipate in this type of olympic so he should be giving a chance to show his portentials,and besides the fifa rule does not allow him to play for us during the period of the olympics,so why now wasting the opportunity of the lad?
If you want a ticket for the game you can go to Craigslist.com, Ticketmaster.com, or Stubhub.com. The game is on Sunday August 3rd, it says the 4th on the Barcelona webpage because it will actually be played at 1am on the 4th Barcelona time...but it starts at 6pm, Aug. 3rd at Soldier Field. Hope that helps.
andy
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