The week in football - episode 62
Thursday, 07 August 08, 02:52 AM
Hello and welcome to another Week in Football podcast on OleOle.com
Up for discussion this week are:
- Cristiano Ronaldo and his decision to stay at United
- Freddie Ljungberg's massive payoff from West Ham
- Lionel Messi and the Olympics and the Olympics themselves
- Ranieri and Mourinho's war of words in Italy
- Scottish football with The Lord of the Wing
Plus we've got Luigi from Spain and details of the OleOle.com fantasy football game. We're running a Premier League mini-league which is open to anyone who wants to join. Just sign up for the game, pick your team then use the following details to join in:
League name: weekinfootballprem
Password: podcast
You can subscribe to The Week in Football using iTunes by clicking here, if you want to
subscribe to the RSS feed itself the URL is here, you can download the podcast directly here or you can listen from this page:
Don't forget your comments and suggestions for the show are always welcome. Feel free to leave a comment here or email podcast@oleole.com.
Like this blog? Help spread the word: 
Common sense prevails at last - Messi not going to the Olympics
Wednesday, 06 August 08, 05:00 AM
Well done to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) who have ruled that some European players are not obliged to attend and play at the Beijing Olympics.
The most high profile objection to this was, of course, Barcelona's to Lionel Messi being called up for Argentina. The CAS has ruled that Messi, along with Werder Bremen's Diego and Rafinha of Schalke, can be prevented by his club from playing.
And rightly so. Clubs are the ones that pay players wages and any games which are not part of the FIFA international calendar should not put those clubs at a disadvantage. As is stands any player that's injured playing for his country returns to his club who must continue to pay his wages, cover the cost of his treatment and rehabilitation and suffer his loss from the team for as long as it takes him to recover. I think there's an issue here that must be addressed but that's separate from this topic just at the moment. I'll come back to it.
The other thing is the Olympics is supposed to be for amateur sportsmen. How can anyone try and claim that Lionel Messi, one of the most high-profile and highly regarded professional footballers in the world, should play in a so-called amateur tournament?
If the Olympics want to have a football tournament then great but make it for amateurs only. Surely that would make it more sporting, more in line with the Olympic 'ideal'.
The idea of professionals playing the Olympics is farcical and I'm glad the CAS have ruled in favour of clubs. I wonder will other clubs now object. I seem to remember reading that Javier Mascherano was supposed to be playing - will Liverpool now take a stand on this? Arsenal have Alex Song going but with the greatest of respect to Song he's nowhere near as important to the Gunners as Messi is to Barcelona or Mascherano to Liverpool.
Hopefully the Olympic Committee will rethink the football tournament ahead of the next games. I know it's an issue that only comes up every four years but surely this ruling now makes it impossible for any club to release a player if they don't want him to go. With that in mind the Olympics should then make the decision that any amateur players may be selected. It'd surely make the tournament more interesting.
Like this blog? Help spread the word:
-
Fizzy said:Please bring back the show for the new season, really missing it!
Liverpool9 said:so wait... really no more WIF??? i love the show!! just when football was getti...
-
theweekinfootball
IE
A football blog and a weekly podcast every Thursday. Focussing on the Premier League but with regular correspondents from around Europe, including La Liga and Serie A.
On The Week in Football - Episode 91