Sports arbitration recognized the right not to release players to the Olympics

Games 2008

The Lausanne Arbitration for Sport (CAS) yesterday made a decision that could impact the Olympic football tournament. CAS judges have ruled that football clubs are not required to release their players to Olympic teams. The decision was made based on a lawsuit filed by Barcelona, Schalke and Werder against the International Football Federation (FIFA), which insisted that football players under 23 years of age must be released. Now the same Barcelona has received the right to recall Lionel Messi from the Argentina national team, which will play its opening match at the Games today. Schalke and Werder could take back Brazilians Rafinha and Diego.

Yesterday, three CAS judges (Efraim Barak, Michele Bernasconi and Ralf Zlokzower) considered a claim brought by three football clubs (Spanish Barcelona and German Schalke and Werder Bremen) against FIFA. The clubs demanded that FIFA’s decision to compulsorily allow players under 23 years of age to join the Olympic teams as unfounded. In particular, the leader of the Argentine national team, Lionel Messi, went from Barcelona to Beijing; (Israel) - "Wisla" (Poland). Werder were forced to release the Brazilian Diego, and Schalke were forced to release another player from the Brazilian national team - Raphinha.

In the lawsuit, the clubs indicated that the obligation to release players to the Olympic teams is not contained in any FIFA regulatory document. The plaintiffs also argued that the rules required them to release players to their national teams only in cases where they were participating in tournaments included in the FIFA coordinated calendar, such as the World Cup, European Cup or Copa America.

As a result, the CAS judges sided with the clubs. The arbitration decision indicates that the FIFA rules actually say nothing about the obligation of clubs to release football players to the Olympics. FIFA's reference to the fact that the participation of players under 23 years of age in the Games is regulated by an agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA traditions has been declared untenable. Let us remember that last week, after a long dispute with the above-mentioned clubs, FIFA decided that, despite the absence of documents obliging teams to make their players available to the Olympic teams, they must do so anyway, simply because it is tradition and This means there is a precedent, and one that has been repeatedly confirmed.

FIFA was surprised to hear that CAS had sided with the clubs. “We are disappointed with the verdict, but we respect it,” said FIFA President Sepp Blatter. He also promised to make changes to FIFA regulations immediately after the Beijing Olympics, so that history does not repeat itself before the 2012 Games, which will be held in London. “In the meantime, we must ensure that the CAS verdict does not affect the quality of the Olympic football tournament,” said Sepp Blatter.

The arbitration decision could indeed affect the Games' football tournament. “There is now nothing stopping clubs from recalling players who have already left for Beijing,” said CAS Secretary General Mathieu Reb. “If a player refuses and does not report to the club on time, this may be considered by the team as a breach of contract and result in appropriate sanctions against the player But we hope that FIFA and the clubs will be able to come to a compromise. We really didn’t want to jeopardize the quality of the Olympic football tournament.”

The clubs that won the lawsuit were in no hurry to announce their further actions yesterday, but the head coach of the Argentine Olympic team, Sergio Batista, made comments. "In the match with Cote D'Ivoire, Messi will take the field in the starting lineup. I spoke with him, and he assured me that he would prefer to stay in the national team than return to Barcelona. But we will still talk with the management of the Catalan club. We hope that we will come to a compromise,” said Mr. Batista. We would like to remind you that previously Barcelona itself proposed a compromise option, which would involve Messi leaving for the Argentine national team after August 12.

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