Why Is Olympic Football So Weird?

[@albertvillarreal7790]

Olympic Football is basically a U-23 World Cup with three overage players allowed per team. I think both FIFA and the IOC want it that way. On FIFA’s part, so the tournament doesn’t compete with the World Cup and on the IOC’s part, so football doesn’t overshadow the other sports who’re only in the limelight every four years. I think the tournament matters to football federations outside Europe where the regional youth tournaments aren’t as competitive as the UEFA U-19 and UEFA U-21. So Olympic football and the U-20 World Cup are the only tournaments where non European federations can truly gauge the state of their youth development.

[@AustinC79]

Only Europeans? Argentina and Brazil didn't pay a lot of attention to this tournaments either. When they did, they won them.

[@NNNNNN0398]

⁠its more like a team of decent U23 players and if they are doing well in their league they called up for the national team with world class players.

[@GauchoArgento]

The most competitive regional youth tournament is the U-20 South American Championship. Powerhouses like Argentina and Brazil can easily not qualify for the WC because of the quality of the rest of the teams and the format of the competition. Most of the players already have some experience playing for the first team at their clubs, and I think that’s what differentiates this competition from the others, where there’s more of an amateur feel. That’s also one of the reasons why CONMEBOL has been dominating in the U-20 WC for the last decades.

[@Gaindalf93]

@@AustinC79when Brazil won it they acted like it’s the World Cup

[@diogomelo7897]

​@@NNNNNN0398Brazil took it very serious because it was the only title the men team didn't have, and when we failed to qualify this year, every one treated as a massive shame

[@smoli3683]

Small correction, Great Britain is only England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Irish athletes choose whether they want to represent Great Britain or Ireland.

[@justalexx7871]

Yeah because aren’t all of those countries together called the United Kingdom

[@FootballIconic]

Thanks!

[@nyantakyibannor9328]

@@justalexx7871 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 😃😃

[@kameff_]

@@justalexx7871technically England, Wales and Scotland are Great Britain. NI athletes decide whether they represent GB or Ireland

[@jesterbeats2898]

@@kameff_ True but they can also represent Northern Ireland so it really depends on the player

[@Darilon12]

Just go full amateur. That would be fun. The international sunday league.

[@aidanwotherspoon905]

My hometown in Canada had a World Players Cup, full of recreational players who played for their country of ancestry

[@ZBritt92]

Then you’ll also just get the red army team… where the government pays them to play hockey, but they pretend that they are soldiers.

[@drkay5667]

Or retired players..just for fun but the thing is young players will be stripped away of the title of being olympians

[@petergilkes7082]

It was full amateur until 1974.

[@Russia-bullies]

Agreed.Furthermore,there should be an amateur Olympics.

[@rohithraman6488]

Look at the argentina 2008 team that won gold in beijing and out of that team, Messi, Aguero, Di Maria, Mascherano, Romero, Zabaleta, Garay, Gago, Lavezzi got to the 2014 world cup final Also look at the spain team that won silver in 2021 in Tokyo, Simon, Cucurella, Zubimendi, Merino, Oyarzabal, Pedri, Olmo all won Euro 2024 But sometimes you get a team like Brazil 2016 that won gold where only about 2-3 players became senior national team regulars

[@jimjohnson724]

And then there's Mexico, who won gold in 2012 and barely called any players from that team for Brazil 2014

[@jakubrejak1114]

@@jimjohnson724 Good thing their MVP was called and scored a winning goal in their first match there.

[@TioJones-lm1zi]

​@@jimjohnson724Had Argentina been there Mexico wouldn't have nothing easy rivals

[@victorfergn]

Messi, Aguero, Di Maria, Mascherano, Romero, Zabaletta... they were young and Argentina was kinda desperated to win anything back then.

[@crisnper994]

You may not have noticed that the Copa America was not held in 2008. Now that the Copa America and the Euro Cup coincide with the Olympic Games, countries outside Europe and South America have more chances of winning it. In addition, in recent years the calendar has become increasingly tighter, so there are fewer professional players playing even if they are under 23, especially those who play in the Euro Cup and the Copa America.

[@ChicoSuaveMang]

The worst-kept secret about the Olympics is that it is mainly for the not well-watched sports that are only popular every four years, when the Olympics roll around. Sports like basketball and football are already so huge and popular that they don’t need the Olympics, but it’s a nice little thing to have. That being said, no footballer in the right mind would pick an Olympic Gold Medal over winning a continental title like the Copa or Euros, and ESPECIALLY not the World Cup.

[@Tom-vu1wr]

Disagree about basketball

[@Tom-vu1wr]

As far as I can see as an outsider it seems to be the big international comprtition

[@jamesprumos7775]

Basketball is still a big deal at the Olympics though.

[@diogomelo7897]

For basketball it's still a big thing, maybe more than the FIBA World Cup

[@Blossom996]

I guess every tournament has it's own significance and in this case I think Olympic championship has been here long before the FIFA grew up as to what we know today. There weren't as many tournaments as there are today and Olympic held its significance after world cup that seems to be overshadowed by other championships today.

[@omgkid]

Shout out from Johannesburg bro, your videos are really entertaining pray

[@Spiedi2012]

I really appreciate the quick tldr at the beginning, so many "informative videos" tackle a topic by first giving a lengthy, more often than not already known, backstory to pad the runtime. This wasnt that. The important information was quick and concise and the rest of the video was well strucktured and important to the topic. Much love

[@NoOne-ks8tu]

Summed up olympic football perfectly with just 2 words 😂

[@mampenza]

Which are?

[@NiteF0X]

@@mampenzaNobody cares 😂

[@limbeboy7]

Money

[@greysnake2903]

@NiteF0X And fifa too.

[@Marc_Araujo]

Fermin Lopez is actually on Spain's Olympic squad, the only player from the Euro 2024-winning team at this tourney.

[@reynaldochlmts]

And alex baena too

[@Marc_Araujo]

@@reynaldochlmts Completely forgot about Baena. I also completely forgot he was on the Euro 2024 team and I'm a Spaniard. I've been watching all these games and they've been rough. Hopefully the team plays better and both the men and the women can both win gold.

[@Juicetra10]

@@Marc_Araujowelp spain men’s team won the gold.

[@Marc_Araujo]

@@Juicetra10 A diggity double.

[@ptbaxter96]

Btw, I would've loved it if you had contrasted it with Women's Olympic Football, which to my understanding, has a much higher standing, being only second to the women's world cup.

[@arroe8386]

I'd say that's because in women's football only the World Cup, Euros, Olympics and UCL get a sufficient amount of viewership and big European clubs only recently started to invest some money into it. So there is less scheduling conflict.

[@davidjr4903]

Nobody, except incel virgins, cares about women's football

[@brianchavez2829]

And don't forget that their tournament has zero age restrictions. Something that I truly enjoy.

[@xvgm24]

Agree 100%. Love watching the women's game at the Olympics since you generally see the top players competing. That being said, it just can't hold a handle to the world cups. For me I think it's because there's a lot fewer teams in the Olympics tournament than the WWC/WC.

[@insertnamehere5809]

The Women's Olympic Tournament has full strength teams & Olympic Gold is still important

[@dylanparker130]

I'll never forget the 2016 Olympic final. Brazil triumphed by beating the very nation that had humiliated them just 2 years earlier: Germany. Having helped Barca win the UCL just a year earlier, Neymar looked unstoppable at that point.

[@ezraezra2928]

Absolutely shame that his transfer to PSG changed the whole career at whole. He's now injury prone.

[@kopanomoss5752]

yea he was fire, not sure who was more red hot form. 2013 Confed Neymar or 2016 Olympic Neymar

[@ezraezra2928]

@@kopanomoss5752 Yeah, Brazillians can't still remember Neymar's injury as one of the reason 1-7 happened.

[@scoreh23]

Peak

[@hkar4385]

7-1 heavily overshadows 2016 Olympic gold medal

[@matriquess]

Still remember 2008, was in my last year of fundamental school (13/14 years) and just took my backpack and left school until had to talk to the principal that I needed to leave to watch Brasil (with Ronaldinho, Alexandre Pato among others) against Argentina with Messi, Di Maria, Aguero... luckily she liked me and allowed, sadly we lost 3x0 but 2016 still have video on my knees as Neymar took the last pen

[@bricktop.]

Anyone old enough to remember Olympic Soccer on the OG playstation? Possibly the best football game ever made.

[@FootballIconic]

Incredible game 👌🏾

[@GarkKahn]

Funny enough the champion wasn't there Kinda like FIFA 18 having the world cup yet not the team that finished 2nd

[@MCHeyStoopid]

I owned the Sega Saturn edition!

[@madams989]

I’m sorry but that title belongs to PES6

[@Jbrassy1222]

​@@GarkKahnlol

[@eduardoaguilar7361]

Mad respect for getting straight to it instead of baiting and dragging out a topic just for the 11 minute monetization mark. Subscribed.

[@ezraezra2928]

The women's football of the Olympics is completely a senior team competition, only behind the FIFA Women's World Cup. Additionally, the women's version of Team GB football played the Olympics in 2012 and 2020, and were supposed to participate in this year's Olympics. However, FIFA changed its qualification rule for the UEFA contestants, where the Women's Nations League is now used instead of the performances in the FIFA Women's World Cup. England (and Team GB) barely missed out the Olympics this year due to the Netherlands' last-minute goals against Belgium in the Women's Nations League.

[@GavrielSchechterman]

Small correction the Olympics is considered the peak of international basketball

[@demonofpurgatory5188]

Nba is the peak of all basketball

[@Kryo-ys7vv]

@@demonofpurgatory5188 Nobody said it wasn’t

[@tholo86]

@@demonofpurgatory5188 Do you the meaning of the word ''International''?

[@gefelipeking563]

@@demonofpurgatory5188”International”

[@greysnake2903]

@Kryo-ys7vv Nobody said it was either.

[@benjaminhoover3243]

Really appreciate how you formatted this talk, getting the full answer up front made me want to stick around to hear the details! lol

[@TORLBC]

Women's Olympic football is top drawer. All the best players, best teams etc. Everyone takes it deadly seriously. For the men? It's a nice lower-stakes competition. Fun to see, for example, Moroccan fans (fresh off that WC 2022 SF) chanting for Game 1 v Argentina (not as fun to see the protests before that Argentine goal was called off).

[@OhyeahMrKrabz]

Put it simply Fifa doesn't want the Olympics to rival the World Cup so they had those rules of it only being U-23

[@josebourdeth8919]

That’s good we don’t need another big tournament.

[@swizinSims]

I think the main reason is that they also don't want it to be overshadowing the other sports, the world already has more than enough football games on the spot light

[@admirald.rifter1819]

Makes sense, i was watching it just now and the teams look very different

[@jason-ps3jw]

Nah bro it’s kinda the other way around, check the history of Olympic.

[@Inspire-Ventures]

@@josebourdeth8919Um yes we do!

[@j.ackermann9110]

Why Olympic Football Is So Weird? Because its completely overshadowed by the world cup and nobody needs another worldwide tournament without the best players.

[@samuelkoomson6017]

The Olympic football tournament is for U23 players. Ronaldo couldn’t win with Portugal hence they say it is irrelevant 😂😂😂

[@eavyeavy2864]

Nobody = you

[@mysticfellow9843]

The Copaamerica/Euros as well on top of pre-season. There's just too much going on and it comes right after a major international tournament.

[@cjeelde]

World Cup is 4 weeks long. Olympics is 2 weeks. So you need to reduce the numer of teams in the olympics to begin with to fit it into two weeks. It's a bit sad that this video is only focusing on men's football. For men in olympics it's U23 + 3 overaged players. For women they can send any players. No U23 restriction. When watching the games on TV it says "France" and not "France U23". So all viewers will believe it's the TRUE french national team, but it isn't. The reason why UK/GB is not competing in men's olympics is that in the Euro U21 they compete as England, Wales, Scotland and N Ireland. So if any of these teams will qualify for olympics they cannot make it to the olympics because England is not GB/UK. I always wonder why UK is never UK in World Cup, why always these 4 different teams? So if UK send 4 teams, why don't USA send 50 teams? One team per state... I hope UK can watch and learn from USA in this area. UK is not THAT united when their four football teams are not united into one... Why do we even have UK/GB in olympics? Why not these four different "countries" like we have in football? I don't care about which, I just hope they can decide and do it equal in all global sports events :)

[@jamesvass737]

The UEFA under 21 championship had an under 21 age limit until 1992 when UEFA raised it to under 23 (players are only under 21 at he start of each two-year UEFA under 21 competition) in order for it to serve as Europe's qualifier for the men's Olympic tournament.

[@HamzaTalksFootball]

Unlike many sports, the Olympics isn't the pinnacle of your footballing career, not even close. There are countless trophies you would take ahead of it. However, when you're there you want to do well, just look at the looks on the faces of players who go out in the ko's for example.

[@icantthinkofacoolname1308]

The Olympics might not be the WC but it can still be a significant competition Women's football doesn't have these weird rules and women's football takes the Olympic football seriously I'm sure some men would love to represent their country during the second biggest sporting event of all time

[@Khaoki]

Baseball players are pushing for MLB to have an Olympics pause for the 2028 season just so the best players are freed up to play for their countries when that sport is brought back to the games. Some of that has to do with promoting the sport but it also likely just comes down to international baseball tournaments finally coming into their own and the players want more of it. Also, Americans, for whatever reason, place far greater weight on Olympics basketball than the basketball World Cup. You can see that with the players who decide to join the rosters for both tournaments.

[@Luso00_]

They already have the Baseball Classic (essentially the Baseball World Cup). Baseball should just do what football does and let U-23 players play the tournament.

[@jmorel42]

Americans love Olympic medals for sure. Literally zero players from the Olympic team played in the FIBA cup. They send younger guys

[@Luso00_]

@@jmorel42 I always wondered that. I don't understand why the Olympics is venerated more than the FIBA championships?

[@Khaoki]

​@@Luso00_ It does, but it's relatively new and the players/fans taking it seriously is even more recent. So international baseball is in the stage where the WBC doesn't have the same colossal gravitas of the World Cup and the players just have the itch to play in more of those tournaments.

[@demonofpurgatory5188]

Steph curry has 2 world cups lebron has 1 bronze medal in world cup

[@Che1seabluesdrogba11]

Thats crazy it doesn't even feature the best youth players

[@Midtable1881]

Get rid of the youth sides and replace them with the lower ranked teams. Imagine a gold medal match between San Marino and Vietnam, pure vibes.

[@cartel_papi]

that's actually a good idea, a competition for teams out of the top 10 fifa rankings

[@KenUbeleveit1]

It's a good idea for lower rank teams. I truly agree. But for viewership/popularity? Some of the guys at the top (Fifa) may not want to take that chance.

[@paulpeter8435]

The silly thing with team GB not being able to form a team from the home nations, is that both Rugby union (with the 7s) and field hockey have them compete independently in tournaments outside of the Olympics. The unified teams have not affected the independence of any team, football is the only one that holds out.

[@victorfergn]

@greenconcrete-z8m the day Scotland plays with England on the same rugby team I'll shoot my balls.

[@Observations599]

No team GB. England might want it but the rest of us (by a story majority) don't. I'm a football and rugby fan and it is comparing apples with oranges.

[@ParadoxalDream]

Same reason why Olympic hockey has not been taking seriously since 2014. The NHL refused to let their players participate which means the best hockey players in the world were not competing in the last three Winter Olympics... Hockey stars such as Connor McDavid never participated in an Olympic game yet... Fortunately the NHL and the IOC reached an agreement for Milan 2026.

[@Phantom-ez4zv]

nobody cares about winter olympics except few nordic countries and canada and usa.

[@banjoplayingbison2275]

The NHL where going to have their players return for 2022, but later then decided against it because of the Pandemic

[@xdtweety7007]

this year's argentina team is a pretty good example of why its a mess, julian alvarez and nicolas otamendi are among those playing this year, alvarez has just turned 24, but he played in thier qualfiying games, so does he count as an over23? idk. and on the other side for example team israel, has a team made of no less than 14 players who have played senior team competions, while argentina has about 5. the contrast is huge and imo throws the whole thing out of the window in terms of being taken as highly as it could be.

[@daredevil6145]

4 players above 23 can play

[@LondonLovesOlympics]

Also, depending on Alvarez's birthday, he could be counted as u23

[@anyhandlewoulddo]

First time ever a KZbinr is as honest as he can be and gives you the answer that you came for before anything else and let you choose if you want to stay or go with your answer already. Subscribed

[@kuroazrem5376]

I do watch Olympic football, especially women's football, which is taken seriously enough.

[@mnd7381]

Not seriously enough tho. I'm a hardcore football fan. We got... like large online communities, friends and no one literally bats an eye towards the Olympics or sometimes even women's football. Even French Ligue 1, EPL and a random Boca Juniors match gets more importance

[@NJ-eo2oc]

Yeah same. i for the most part watch women's football olympics since its with all their star players and its taken seriously

[@kreitous]

@@mnd7381 Because a u13 boys match is better than women soccer !

[@greysnake2903]

@kreitous "I'll be there no matter what."

[@greysnake2903]

@mnd7381 Because no one in football likes watching the olympics. Especially the girls.

[@filipcar96]

Small correction, Olympic Games is the biggest competition in Basketball between nations.

[@admirald.rifter1819]

That makes sense given they dont have world cups and such right?

[@demonofpurgatory5188]

Basketball has a worldcup

[@nytarT1]

@@admirald.rifter1819 they had a world cup last summer where Germany beat Serbia for gold in the final and Canada took bronze while USA placed 4th. However, only 2 USA players who were on the team last summer are actually in the USA's olympic roster with both of them being bench players. The US heavy hitters like Lebron and Kevin Durant or in the past Carmelo Anthony, Kobe, Dwayne wade only would represent USA at the olympics and not at the fiba world cup/championships.

[@bgsash242]

Well, I take it as U-23 World Cup, which is also the part of football global youth system, where we also have the U-20 and U-17 World Cup. Is it less prestigious than the senior team FIFA World Cup? yes, of course. But age group tournament also has it own charm where we can see young players that maybe will have a better career chance after the tournament.

[@tiekumark]

Totally wrong on Brazil. Not having Olympic gold was a massive issue in the country. they take the olympics very serious there unlike other countries

[@noroomstash2098]

it doesnt matter since their competing with the C or D teams of other nations

[@tiekumark]

@@noroomstash2098 what are you on about?

[@12gasl]

No one in Brazil went outside to celebrate that lol Of course the players always want to win but it means nothing

[@BlueFlam3Z]

Im brazilian and youre full of crap. All that matters in football is who wins the world cup.

[@joaovitorpachecodasilva1187]

Hell no KKKKKKKK nobody gives a fuck

[@okokokokkoko3214]

Idk abt “no one cares” ive seen multiple Ronaldo fans celebrating U23 Argentina losing 😂

[@opinionatortv6457]

Well, they only care about Argentina. But the rest of them? No attention at all

[@samuelkoomson6017]

Ronaldo couldn’t win the Olympic gold with Portugal

[@arroe8386]

Yeah... I'd say that's "football fans" who know so little about football that they think this would have anything to do with Messi 😂

[@fairphoneuser9009]

OG Ronaldo? 😉

[@MrMMAJER]

Because they are casuals

[@kb-qd3sm]

Thanks for answering the question early on in the video! I appreciate you!

[@Bsus4films]

I would actually argue that for Tennis and Basketball, the Olympics are amongst the most prestigious competitions. For tennis it's treated as the fifth grand slam, and for basketball I'd say it's slightly more important than the Basketball World Cup.

[@misran449]

2:51, that earned my sub and like. that straight no bs answer felt fresh. of course I stayed and watched the whole video

[@psicoalias]

Excellent construction of the video, with a straight answer at the beggining. I watched in full anyway. :D P.S: Sorry for my broken english

[@aliakseimemelau3]

Maybe switching to futsal might work better. Would be kind of like rugby 7s and I think it fits well.

[@mirzaahmed6589]

Why not have both futsal and 11-a-side tournaments? 3x3 basketball has featured in the Olympics at the same time as 5x5, so it's not impossible.

[@dronesclubhighjinks]

The women seem to take women’s football very seriously in the Olympics. and the countries who win medals are extremely proud of themselves. They send their best players. For the men, would it be realistic for them to have finished the euro cup or Copa America, and then participate 2 to 3 weeks later in the Olympics? Genuine question. Thanks for the video! 🙏

[@geenkaas6380]

Yes

[@LondonLovesOlympics]

No, their season also starts a month earlier than the women, so if they do play the Olympics after COPA and the Euros then they won't get the rest they need until December. That's why Pep tried to stop Alvarez playing. Yea the women's football is more enjoyable.

[@mnd7381]

​@@LondonLovesOlympics enjoyable? I didn't feel it tho

[@greysnake2903]

Because they don't have girth

[@dronesclubhighjinks]

@@LondonLovesOlympics the players do need rest! The tiny amount they got in 2022 with the World Cup being in November/December was absolutely ridiculous.

[@jimjohnson724]

At this point it doesn't make sense anymore and even hypocritical to consider olympic athletes as amateurs, given the insane amount of money the IOC makes in every Olympics

[@potter22q]

for tennis the olympics is like a side quest, grab a gold to boost your resume, but you drop a week of points to play what is essentially an exhibition, for djoker it gives him a career golden slam, which is arguably the most value it can provide

[@insertnamehere5809]

Look at the welcome back parade that Serbia 🇷🇸 gave thier Olympians recently & tell me that the Joker didn't give a 💩 about winning gold 🥇

[@obi1_trq869]

5:32 classic, iconic 🇳🇬 ❤

[@stanyamish3996]

As a sports fan, Olympics are the best moment of sports. For two weeks, I watch a lot of sports I'm not used to watch on a regular basis. Especially this year since I live near the Stade de France and I feel the Olympic fever in the Parisian region. As a football fan, I don't really pay attention to it. I follow the results but don't watch the games. Except France vs Argentina because of the beef between our countries recently. It should remain in the Olympics even if, like tennis, it's not seen as the major competition. It is still a competition which is important for some and it gives a status despite football being the most popular sport by far. It also allows young players to gain experience with a bigger spotlight than the youth World Cups. One correction : basketball is a big deal during the Olympics.

[@PanteraRossa]

When there's less teams in the competition people complain that you're not even competing against sufficient good rivals. When there's more teams like the next WC or the last Euros, people complain that "anyone" can qualify and it's "not special" anymore. Lesson is, just never change anything ever because crybabies will cry no matter what.

[@SubManifest]

At the end of the day, these things shouldn’t lessen their enjoyment of football.

[@segafreak2000]

To be honest, there is a certain sweet spot though. Ideally, the number of participants should be a power of 2 so that you avoid any of the third place nonsense that the EURO is having (and that the WC will be having next time too). And from that point it's very easy to measure the ideal amount of participants. 32 for the World Cup, because 64 really is too many. And 16 for the EURO, because with 32 you would have almost the entire UEFA playing in the tournament. It really is that simple.

[@PanteraRossa]

@@segafreak2000 but even that’s just arbitrary. The next WC has for example done what you said, top 2 of 3 in each group move on and there’s an additional round of 32 knockout stage. Result being 32 teams guaranteed at least three games (just like now) and play the same amount of games to the final, while 16 additional teams get to have the World Cup experience and play 2 games. Somehow they managed to do something awesome and expand the experience of playing in a WC without adding games or losing competitiveness but it’s still being “hugely controversial” and a lot of people hate it. Usually the only ones that hate it are the ones that always qualify. They never put themselves in the shoes of all those people that dream of their country getting to play a World Cup. 50% more teams means potentially a billion additional fans from new countries getting that experience but no, we can’t do that because European commentators don’t like it? Come on

[@segafreak2000]

@@PanteraRossa The next world cup does not have groups of three. And it will never have groups of three because of the Disgrace of Gijon. It'll be 12 groups of 4, with the 8 best 3rd place teams also advancing. Check your facts before commenting.

[@PanteraRossa]

@@segafreak2000 nope you’re wrong. Maybe take your own advice before insulting strangers and read the facts. 16 groups of 3 is the only proposal that doesn’t add an extra game and was accepted by the players unions and most federations.

[@neithanmaciel2383]

Mexico won the gold on 2012 and for my generation (born during the late 90s and esrly 2000s) it was truly special to win it against neymar and brazi, but again that's only the case since we barely get any other great trophy besides the burger King cup or however it's now called the continental competition.

[@TioJones-lm1zi]

Nobody cares

[@neithanmaciel2383]

@TioJones-lm1zi so why did you answered?

[@joaovitorpachecodasilva1187]

México can Win some copa america that includes Argentina, Brazil,uruguay etc,i know thats not a world cup,but its better than this shit that it is CONCACAF CUP

[@charlesray9674]

Fifa didn't want any other tournament competing against their world cup. And for the most part, the Olympics used to be for "amateurs". The men's game is U23 while the women's is not ( I'm guessing because Fifa doesn’t think about the women's tournament outshining the world cup.) And also, football doesn't have an (almost) annual "world championship" like the other sports do which makes the Fifa world cup unique and very prestigious which is why Fifa insist on having Olympic football as U23 event

[@brybanz2085]

it definitely mostly just goes with the world cup and how prestigious it is. on the other side, not many people care much about fiba and the basketball world cup, so you see so many more A-listers and NBA stars showing up to the olympics

[@nick-np1bb]

What year for Spain, now we won the Olympic gold 🥇 for football 🇪🇦

[@Chorizero2369]

Im my opinion I think that Olympic football is both a good accomplishment but at the same time not as big as the World Cup or some other continental cups. Like when Mexico won the gold in 2012 I was happy and celebrating it because it is a big world accomplishment but at the same time I do know that it’s not as big as the World Cup or some of the other continental cups there are

[@valerha9508]

thank you for answering the question quickly in the video, not going to watch more but i left a like because i highly appreciate it

[@lunarphoenix1011]

Correction: fermin lopez played in the Euros and is currently playing in the OLYMPICS.

[@forgedbyironandfire4150]

He played a whole of 28 minutes at the Euros which shows he is not an important part of the team and thats the whole point, so your comment is far from a correction

[@luispalacios1816]

It's funny because while the NHL is the highest level of ice hockey and the Stanley Cup is so iconic, ice hockey at the olympics is given so much weight and importance. I guess it comes down to ice hockey not having a different way to represent their home nations. The NHL might be trying to shift this with their World Cup of Hockey, but doubt it could top representing your country in the olympics. Great video!

[@mwilkins1644]

Bang on the money, mate. As a cricket fan, we'll find this exact issue if cricket comes on as part of the Olympics. So many tournaments that are more prestigious than the Olympics, combined with the fact that it'll be hard to see Scotland want to be part of a GB team, and Wales' historic misrepresentsion in the sport

[@cxrlxshnrq]

Imo it would be pretty cool if the Olympics were added to the datafifa and then become the official de jure and de facto U23 World Cup. I'd go further and say they should also add to the Olympics an U20 and U17 tournaments and also consider them Youth World Cups. FIFA could use the Olympics as the main stage for youth football.

[@branx4426]

Mexico celebrates their gold medal like it’s a World Cup win to this day, so I’d say it matters, no?

[@brohdez8857]

I can’t believe we actually won Gold.

[@cartel_papi]

I feel like more countries should prioritize it lol, cuz only a few ever win the world cup and it's generally something that gets recycled among those same teams, they should add 2 more senior spots too

[@TioJones-lm1zi]

Cuase they can't win anything else

[@davidurrea1727]

One of the last good sides Mexico ever provided in football. 2012 never forgotten

[@aeroecars]

They shouldn't tbh. It's embarrassing.

[@giancarlotorres3520]

I care watching from 7-3 sitting in the couch this summer is really nice!

[@Onebadterran]

Honestly, I would be a big fan of a Home Countries tournament, effectively an expanded FA Cup that includes all the British FAs. It would be really cool to see top Scottish clubs come up against English sides on a more regular basis than the random UEFA match on pure luck. It would also help provide a more clear ranking between the teams between the divisions beyond how each club performs in continental competition and their respective coefficients.

[@Observations599]

English clubs are too cash rich it would get stale quickly. A more exciting prospect would be a British league where clubs like hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen can slowly 'catch' up with similar sized clubs in England. If Luton can make the premier league any of those 3 could, hypothetically, with money.

[@mainakbiswas2584]

Tennis doesn't belong to that list at all. All the top players have craved for olympic glory - so much so players who never play doubles teamed up to bring gold - fed, djoko, rafa, serena, steffi, murray, and the list goes on. Moreover, women's football in olympics has same status as WC. Its just men's football and Basketball and to certain extent - golf.

[@Josh-ut4wv]

And for golf did you see the gd medalist as they were playing the national anthem he broke down and started crying on stage and he is the number 1 golfer in the world

[@Bentley7Cruize]

I think,you should go more in depth on this topic. You focused on Britain's issues a lot which gave me more insight. But what about other nations and regions? I would love to see more explanation on the history and decisions each region has made and the basis of these.... although it does all come down to fifa wanting less competition

[@TheAfterIife]

great video i always had this doubt about football at the olympics never seen messi or ronaldo there

[@Wingcake1]

Another factor hurting it its the Euros and copa are the same year so the best under 23 players probably played in the summer and dont want to do 2 tournaments even weaker countries like the usa couldnt convince pulisivlc to go he rather donpreseason with milan just imagine how hard spain or france have it.

[@drstone2358]

That 2016 football Olympics went crazy

[@echarts3710]

One reason why we don't see many famous footballers in Olympics is that it happens late July-early August, which is the time period clubs start their seasons. Since Euros and Copa America happen weeks before Olympics, players do not prefer to play in there as well. Pedri, Olmo and Oyarzabal somehow played in both and managed to win Olympic silver and play Euro semi-final. An interesting solution can be increasing the number of over 23 age players from three to five, but maximum one player (regardless of age) plays a continental tournament in last two years. So it can be a tournament not only for under age players, but also for those that are not called up to the national squad often. By the way, UK nations actually found a compromise for Olympic football, but for women's. Great Britain played in 2020 Olympics thanks to England playing World Cup semi final and they had a mostly English squad with three Scottish and one Welsh players.

[@SilenceRed]

Atlanta 96 was the best tournament ever held at the olympics. The new rule of U23+3 debuted and it really felt like a U23 world cup. Look up the squads, they were crazy. Sadly it went downhill from there. Nowdays squads are not U23+3, they are "whichever U23 clubs release and whatever senior 3 we are given. For anyone younger, I cheer you to go check out that tournament on wikipedia, Germany was the only big team missing.

[@tibalt966]

I think the best idea I’ve heard is they should do what basketball and volleyball have done and add smaller, more casual versions of their sports to the Olympics. Whether that be Futsal, 5 a sides, or beach soccer, add some small event to bring interest

[@MrKasai]

Football players value more Winning the domestic league way more than an Olympic Gold medal

[@cero39b]

Thanks for the upfront answer! I stayed for the rest because of it

[@javimunoz9232]

7:16 you mention Fermín from Spain does not play the in the Olympics and he just scored twice today against Japan. He and Álex Baena were both called to play in the 2024 Euro and the Spanish team for the Olympics

[@MihailParshin]

I didn't even know the restrictions on that football. When I was young, around 2010, my father told me 1 day that in Olympics play only some amateur or street footballers and from time to time there might join 1 or 2 stars from the profesionals. So I just though that Olympic football is the amateur version of the WC. But that under 23 rule means that you can easily fit 11 professionals there, when you take into account that some are already good enough around 17-18 yo.

[@fishingislife9554]

It’s just not necessary, the World Cup, euro and copa America already establish what national teams are the best, there’s no need for another tournament

[@GeorgeTooCur1ous]

Its for bragging rights, and also for countries to see how good their team will be in future years depending on how their youth performs

[@akachkach]

This Olympics tournament that "no one cares about" was 100x more fun to watch than the boring Euros :-)

[@egg8672]

Olympic football is like fooftball without the ball

[@malhaar2271]

So it's fooft? What is fooft?

[@thegreatsound113]

More like football without the foot

[@eavyeavy2864]

Go away rondu

[@skyrisetempest1452]

U should changed it to the player being not well known and not superstar that’s why people rarely watch it and winning it is not that important

[@SubManifest]

Olympic football would be more exciting if it was 7 a side with rolling subs and 60 minute games. You could equate it to 20/20 cricket vs test match cricket

[@javimunoz9232]

Tennis IS perceived as one of the major tournaments for individual players

[@flurmp1238]

This is why i prefer the Olympics womens game

[@IulianYT]

Well, from my perspective - I don't watch many sports, only occasionally, but when there are huge events like World Cup or Euro Championships, which happen once in 4 years AFAIK - I watch like 30-50% of the games. But, if these championships would be held annually - I wouldn't watch at all, as it would be boring and time consuming, and it wouldn't be as prestigious. So I don't have any issue at all that Olympic Football is some kind of U-23 championship with only few countries qualified and even some of them refusing. But there is also another "time related" issue. I watched some of the Olympic games, mostly when my country was competing, and what can I say - there are competitions like sprints, where there are few minutes of showing each athlete, then 8-9 seconds is the run itself, and may be few seconds after with replay, results and that's it. Well, some of them run longer distances, and there are still several runs, with qualifications to the finale, but still, it is a very fast competition. Then there are wrestling matches, which last for few minutes. Or there are jumping competitions which last longer, as each athlete has several attempts and they jump one after another. Also there are power lifting competition, where each athlete has around six attempts, and they last even longer. So there are a lot of sports, which are getting a bit more visibility through Olympic games. But let's imagine there is no World Cup, and instead - what would be World Cup is included in the Olympic games. Football is so "big", that the Olympic games would last longer (measured in weeks), the football fans will "trash the place", or there would be several stadiums, not to interfere with other sports, which will decrease somewhat of the "Olympic vibe", as athletes will not be in the same "village". Also, many sports don't take that much space, and competitions are held in parallel on the same stadium, but football requires the whole stadium, each game lasts for 2 hours (with anthems, pauses, extra time etc). Marathon also lasts a bit longer than 2 hours, but with one "run" you get the results for all participants. But in football you can at most eliminate one team in 2 hours. So, the fact that "Olympic Football is weird" - is not that bad, it is kind of better for both - the "hardcore" Footbal, and for Olympics as a whole.

[@continentalrcinglg]

They did tweak that "no UEFA or CONMEBOL players with previous World Cup experience" rule from 1984 for the 1988 tournament in Seoul: UEFA and CONMEBOL players with previous World Cup experience COULD take part...provided they played less than 90 minutes in a single World Cup match.

[@lostsoldier212]

Great video...supe5 interesting. I like this explanation.

[@GoodGuyChucky-666]

Being a football fan myself & also like watching the Olympics when it's on the TV when I'm watching, watching sports that i don't have a general interest in like most people, I don't consider football to be an olympic sport especially when the FIFA world cup eclipses the Olympics when it comes to football

[@liamcadle5283]

Yo Tinashe, love the work bro, just gotta add something though. Olympic basketball certainly is considered the epitome of the sport. Why would the USA have formed the Levengers to win it if it didn't matter? 😅

[@demonofpurgatory5188]

Nba is peak by a huge amount it was formed because some unknown sprinter who isn't even 1/10 as big as lebron son tried to discredit an nba champion if usa win it brings all the prestige back to the nba

[@liamcadle5283]

@@demonofpurgatory5188 no for sure but that's a league. Not necessarily a once every two or four years continental or intercontinental tournament 😅

[@Che1seabluesdrogba11]

I only been watching skateboarding and other random stuff but sparingly

[@shisoyrown]

5-a-side football in the paralympics is quite enjoyable. So are the other para-football variants.

[@HonestWatchReviewsHWR]

The way I see it, the Olympics should be the best of the best in whatever event/sport it is they are competing in... If it isn't, then I'm not interested.

[@romanmcmillan7542]

Fermín López and Alex Baena are participating in the Olympics

[@GinoGabriel-t5c]

This is how yu do these "Why?" videos. Say the answer at the beginning, and then spend tehrest of the videos explaining why. This is a format everyone should follow, hence why I subscribed. Plus I love football, to bad my nation doesn't care about it. Sigh...

[@gass995]

I just think Olympic football is a youth tournament with three over aged players. I personally like it but just don’t put it in the same level as the World Cup rather it’s similar to u-20’s wc.

[@zorba4166]

@Football Iconic, where did you get your RM jersey , I need it bru damn😩

[@elyassaa6136]

I think they should scrap the group stage matches and go straight for a knock out games, i honestly would watch that.

[@ElGrandoCaymano]

So Yamal, Pedri and Nico Williams couldn't play on the Spanish Olympic Football team, because they've previously played in a World Cup tournament for the senior Spanish team? Or could they play in both (senior team and Olympic team)? I'm pretty sure there was some enthusiasm to have David Beckham be one of the >23 y.o. players on the GB team at London 2012.

[@ivannevarez8478]

Candada! Won the Olympics? Ohh Candada! Ohh Candada.

[@Federicosuave]

Correction: Brazil won few more World Cups but ARGENTINA is the most decorated team in the world. 16 Copa Americas 3 World Cup and few Olympics

[@Diego-fy6qz]

Based on what?

[@joaovitorpachecodasilva1187]

Argentina would give ALL copa Américas for 1 world cup Bro

[@Federicosuave]

@@joaovitorpachecodasilva1187 Copa América is very prestigious and Argentina will win more world cups

[@sotsubreivaj]

OK but there's something you've missed: the berths. While FIFA distributes berths according to level and history, IOC does it according to I don't know, some false sense of equality. So, for a World Cup UEFA gets like three times the slots CAF gets, having almost the same amount of countries; CAF gets almost the same slots than Conmebol, having like five times more countries than South America and we are all OK with that. As for the Olimpycs, UEFA and CAF get three berths each and since The Americas are but one sole continent for the IOC, Conmebol and Concacaf gets only two slots each. I think the really bad distribution of berths is crucial when speaking about how Olympics aren't as prestigious as a World Cup.

[@ishtea]

I was surprised by the Spain squad at the olympics. Even though they are doing well, there’s no big name players there. They didn’t bother to send anyone above the age of 23. Only Abel Ruiz is like 24. I don’t think they are going past the semifinals.

[@daerincakes]

The uk don't compete in olympic football due to england, scotland, wales and nothern ireland ( yes its the uk but we have to compete under great britian because of the ioc's name rules ) and the 4 countries are represented independently at tournaments such as the euros and the world cup, so when it comes to a team gb football team, its pretty much impossible to negotiate on a team so we simply don't compete

[@GamerNintendo25]

I think it’s wild that futsal and beach football aren’t at the Olympics. They would surely fit in well, and both events are run by FIFA or organisations adjacent to FIFA that get decent publicity. In a lot of FIFA docs they show clips from futsal and beach football tournaments. If FIFA doesn’t want Olympic football to be that big, they could push other forms of football there instead

[@diogomelo7897]

I don't know about Beach Football, but with Futsal the problem is because the World Cup happens in the same year as the Olympics

[@gl0bal7474]

great research

[@lawrenceporter8389]

Title should be ‘why is Men’s Olympic football so weird?’

[@GauchoArgento]

I personally find the U-20 WC more interesting to watch than Olympic football. The quality of football is generally better than in the Olympics, since the squads are mostly composed with players that have been part of the youth process since U-15 and the coaches have more time to work with them. The teams at the Olympics are a mix of players that are not used to playing with each other, and the coaches have a few weeks to work with them. Additionally, clubs denying their U-23 stars to the national teams makes it difficult for coaches to form their ideal starting eleven. An example of this is the Argentina team at Rio 2016, which was at the verge of not participating because the clubs didn’t want to give any of its youth players.