Football could be cut from Olympics

Football’s future inclusion in the Olympic Games has been placed in doubt if FIFA pushes ahead with proposals for a biennial World Cup, Report informs referring to The Telegraph.

The International Olympic Committee issued the ‘initial’ list of sports that will be included at the 2028 Los Angeles Games on Thursday morning and, while football was named among 28 sports, a separate footnote was added which said that “the IOC will continue to monitor the evolution of the international match calendar”.

This was then followed up at February 3 IOC Congress at the Winter Olympics in Beijing with sustained criticism of FIFA’s plan for a football World Cup every two years.

Seasoned IOC observers have interpreted the IOC’s latest statement as a direct warning that there will be consequences if Fifa pushes ahead with its controversial World Cup plan.

FIFA believes that the plan will accelerate football’s global development, close the gap on the European clubs and national teams that dominate competitions, and add billions of dollars in revenue that could be shared among its 211 national federations.

There is support from Africa for the plan but the European and South American governing bodies have said they will boycott biennial tournaments.

The IOC did leave boxing, modern pentathlon and weightlifting off the initial list of sports for 2028 but they have been granted a potential pathway back if they address a series of specific concerns that were raised back in December.