By David Gold
November 30 – London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe (pictured) has said that Manchester United and other teams could benefit from their players participating in the Olympic Games football tournament next summer.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson last week said that he would not want his youngsters, such as Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Danny Welbeck, playing both in the Olympic Games and the European Championships earlier in the summer.
He did though suggest he would not begrudge Ryan Giggs a chance of playing at a major international tournament for the first time if his veteran Welshman was selected as one of the three exceptions to the under 23 rule for football squads.
“I know that Alex and other managers will want their players to be fit and healthy for the Premier League,” said Coe.
“Alex is a believer in Olympic football and I have spoken to him about it.
“That is very clearly Alex wearing his Manchester United, Premier League manager’s hat and I know some managers will inevitably do so.
“There are a lot of players that would like to play in the Olympic Games and there are a lot of managers that think it is an important part of the development of a player.”
Coe, a longtime season ticket-holder at Chelsea, is currently promoting the Olympic football tournament after tickets went back on sale this week.
Demand was high with matches at Wembley particularly popular, but there are still plenty of tickets available for games at all the other host stadiums in Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and Coventry.
Coe believes that the Games can be crucial in a player’s development, with South American nations in particular taking Olympic football tournaments seriously historically, and the likes of Santos’s Brazilian star Neymar, Ajax’s Nicolas Lodeiro and Barcelona prodigy Thiago Alcântara could all feature in 2012.
“I went to the Olympic final in Athens just as a fan and watched Argentina against Paraguay in the final,” Coe recalled.
“Carlos Tevez was playing, basically making his international debut, and Lionel Messi played in the 2008 final in Beijing.
“So there is an extraordinary opportunity for young players and a lot of countries do use the Olympic tournament as a way of giving young players that tournament experience when it is probably less important in a way for them than their European or continental championships or even a World Cup.”
Coe also confirmed that Newcastle’s home ground, the Sports Direct Arena, will be referred to as its historic name St James’ Park for sponsorship reasons.
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