Age Limit To Stay For 2012 Football
World football governing body FIFA has been forced to back down over plans to change the age restriction of players to under-21 for the London 2012 Olympics.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) members warned football could be kicked out of the Olympics if FIFA stood by its plan to alter the under-23 limit.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter suggested a likely scenario would be to keep the existing under-23 limit but with no over-age players. Three over-age players are allowed under current rules.
‘There have been declarations by some members of the IOC executive board that if we are going to lower the age limit again that we will be kicked out of Olympics,’ said Blatter.
‘I spoke with IOC president Jacques Rogge and he said that will not be the case but we could suffer with another principle – we have 28 teams involved, 16 men’s and 12 women’s and we could lose that privilege. Only fools never change their minds.’
A task force will now be set up to look at the issue with Blatter adding the scenario of only scrapping the three over-age players was a strong possibility.
The news comes only a few days after FIFA ratified the inclusion of an all-English team to compete in the 2012 tournament under the Great Britain moniker.
