And the FIFA President Sepp Blatter has finally spoken on the whole club-versus-country mess in the Olympic football tournament. A report of what he said in a letter to the member associations – http://www.sportinglife.com/football/overseas/other/story_get.dor?STORY_NAME=soccer/08/07/23/SOCCER_FIFA.html&TEAMHD=foreign

Now it will be interesting to see how the clubs who are trying to stop their players from heading to the Games are going to do now. I know Schalke and Werder Bremen are insisting on taking legal action over Rafinha and Diego respectively. I myself do follow both the Premier League and the Bundesliga and how the Bundsliga clubs reacted to the Olympic call-up is…I don’t know. I don’t want to say it.

The last I remember, Manchester United never protested about Anderson being called up for the Brazil squad.

Oh yeah. An update for you Bruno. I saw Diego on the TV earlier in a report of the Brazil Olympic football squad arriving here. Ronaldinho, Pato was also shown as well. Quite a number of fans were at the airport welcoming them. And serious, I was not at the airport today. Though I wish I was among the fans.

And even I was reading another article today, it didn’t get me excited at all. All these club-versus-country mess is enough to dampen my excitement. Funny when it was first announced on Monday in the newspapers they are coming, I was excited (especially at the thought of Dinho, in my country). Then the joy became deflated very soon after.

The article I was referring to earlier – http://www.todayonline.com/articles/266566.asp

I am aware you guys have not won a gold yet in Olympic football and so I can understand in a way. For us, the 1960 Games was the last time we ever won an Olympic medal (it’s a silver in weight-lifting). Yeah, the newspapers always remind us every four years when was the last time we won a medal in the Olympics. We came so close four years ago in Athens in getting a bronze for table-tennis (or ping pong for some) and there’s genuine belief the drought may end this time in Beijing. We actually ’suffer’ longer than Spain until the Euro 2008 win for them.

By the way, the currency being referred in the article is in our local currency (the Singapore dollar). I am not very sure if I can afford to watch the guys in action. I think the broadcasters may show it on TV. I don’t know, there will a local selection against the boys from Brazil next Monday. The media’s excited here. Not everyday we get to see this. As far as I can remember, this is the first time this is happening in my living memory. It’s the Olympic football squad but still, it’s Brazil.

In any case, if you have an opportunity to follow Brazil do so. It’s always cool. And let us know what’s happening there.

Given it’s kind of weird that I was reading the newspaper reports yesterday that his name was among those mentioned coming here.

Now I remember something. Bruno, I thought Real Madrid said that Robinho got injured or something and so he couldn’t make it to the Games? Or is there more than it meets the eye?

I don’t know whether to be really excited when they arrive here tomorrow (it’s Tuesday here at the moment). I was reading the papers today and it even reported their flight details. It was really a coup to get the boys from Brazil but, well! For me personally, this is the first time in my living memory they are coming to my country. Even though this is the Olympic squad but still, it’s Brazil. The fact that they are coming here en route to try to win the Olympic gold for the first time, I don’t know, my feelings are mixed.

And, I was reading that Schalke has reportedly told Rafinha that they will terminate his contract if he really heads to the Olympics. He is 22 this year and this is an U-23 tournament. What’s with that?

I first read about that here – http://www.sportinglife.com/football/overseas/other/story_get.dor?STORY_NAME=international_feed/08/07/22/SOCCER_Ger-Bundesliga_Olympics_Night.html&TEAMHD=foreign

if he really wanted to go, he would’ve. What Milan would do in case kaka went to the games anyways? Sell him?
I can’t believe the best player of the world has no word in these matters.