Threat to Olympic competition

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Fifa, the world governing body, is considering a proposal to abolish the Olympic tournament, setting up in its place an under-23 world championship. The issue goes before the executive committee, which is meeting in Barcelona on Saturday.

"If Fifa set up its own Under-23 World Championship and the IOC [International Olympic Committee] wanted to keep soccer in the Olympics, that could lead to problems," Keith Cooper, a Fifa spokesman, said yesterday. "The IOC can't do it without the approval of Fifa any more than they can stage an archery tournament if the International Archery Federation doesn't want to take part."

With the exception of the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, football has been in the Olympics since 1900, repeatedly running into problems over who should be allowed to play. Fifa closely guarded the exclusivity of the World Cup and refused to let all the leading players take part in the Olympics.

The disputes and the low quality line-ups meant the Olympic tournament rarely made the headlines until this year's Games in Atlanta, where Nigeria upset the leading nations, Brazil and Argentina, to become the first African winners.

Organisers thought they had reached a good compromise in Atlanta when the competition was based on players aged 23 and under, plus three over- age competitors. However, that attracted critics, too, culminating with the proposal from within the executive committee to set up a Fifa-backed world championship in that age group as replacement for the Olympic tournament. "It would make the Olympic men's tournament totally redundant," Cooper said.

Gilbert Felli, the IOC sports director, said he was aware that some Fifa officials have talked about taking football out of the Olympics. "After the Games, they were not happy that they were in Athens and not in Atlanta," Felli said. "There were some comments that maybe football should go out of the Olympics because it doesn't get enough consideration."

The proposal to start a world under-23 competition may even gain the support of the English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Football Associations, because they are not recognised individually by the IOC and are ineligible for the Olympics.

Even if the championship is approved, the Olympic tournament should remain safe for the 2000 Games in Sydney at least. The likelihood is Fifa will not go as far as creating a conflicting tournament but will continue to reject the IOC's pleas to allow a completely open Olympic tournament. "Soccer is the only sport in the Olympics that has this age restriction and some people feel that in some way that is against the spirit of the Olympics," Cooper said.

"Around 1.4m spectators watched the Olympic tournament at all its venues. More people watched the tournament than any other sport in the Games from the financial point of view. But it would not be wise or in the interests of football for it to be a completely open event, because that effectively means some kind of World Cup every two years."

The United Arab Emirates, the hosts, came from behind yesterday to draw 1-1 with South Korea yesterday in the opening match of the Asian Cup tournament. Hwang Sun-hong, who scored South Korea's goal, could have settled matters in injury time when, with only the goalkeeper to beat, he shot just wide of the right post.

Hwang, running on to a delightful through ball from midfield, opened the scoring in the ninth minute. He fired a left-foot shot from just inside the penalty area into the bottom corner of the goal.

But as South Korea's domination began to to become embarrassing, the UAE hit back through their striker Khamis Saad. The Korean central defenders failed to clear an easy cross, presenting Saad with his chance.