Franklin Foer characterises Iraq’s surprising victory over Portugal as a meaningless victory because Olympics football is “a boring non-event.”
Foer is right in pointing out there isn’t much interest in Olympic football matches and he’s also right in acribing this to the limitations imposed on the Olympics football tournament e.g. each squad may only have three players over 23.
But I think he’s wrong about the reasons for those limitations. According to Foer:
With the calendar so jammed, the soccer world simply has no need for another major tournament. And the game’s elite can’t afford the physical toll of another long event.
I think the more pertinent point is FIFA doesn’t want the Olympics tournament to overshadow their own little soiree and FIFA should be worried because contrary to Foer’s claim that the Olympics gold medal has no appeal to footballers, Ronaldo insisted on playing in the Olympics despite the protestations of his manager.
