March 27 – South Korea and Australia have called on FIFA to raise the age limit for the Olympic football tournament in 2021 with a view to keeping the players that helped participants qualify eligible for the tournament.
Earlier this week, Japan and the IOC agreed to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games for a year amid growing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. The Olympic men’s football tournament, with squads allowed only three players above the age of 23, will be played in 2021, raising the prospect that some players will miss out due to the age limit.
“We’d like to ask you to take steps to ensure that players who secured the Olympic berth for their country will not be put at a disadvantage,” wrote the Korean Football Association in a letter to the IOC, FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), according to South Korea’s news agency Yonhap.
The KFA also demanded that squads would be expanded for the Olympic Games. “Including Olympic qualifying matches, all FIFA and continental competitions are contested with 23 players per side, and only the Olympic tournament is limited to 18 players,” wrote the KFA. “The 18-man roster is archaic.”
Socceroos coach Graham Arnold joined the Korean stance by demanding IOC’s Coordination Commission chief John Coates that the age limit be raised in these exceptional circumstances.
“It’s probably the only sport at the Olympics which has an age limit and you’d expect that FIFA and the IOC will consider that, for one Olympic campaign, that age group increases so those players get the opportunity to fulfil their dreams and what they’ve achieved,” said Arnold. “I said (to Coates), ‘you need to make sure the age group for the boys is shifted to 24 so those boys who helped qualify their nations have the chance to still go.’ That would be, I think, the fair thing.”
Australia, South Korea and Saudi Arabia will represent Asia, alongside hosts Japan, at the Olympic tournament.
In a statement FIFA wrote that “Further to the IOC’s decision, FIFA will work with relevant stakeholders to address all key matters related to this rescheduling.”
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at moc.l1734851133labto1734851133ofdlr1734851133owedi1734851133sni@o1734851133fni1734851133