The Paris Olympics football tournament began on Wednesday. The hosts beat the USA 3-0 in the first round. A few hours earlier, there was a big surprise in Saint-Etienne, where Argentina lost to Morocco 1-2.
The match had a strange ending. In the 16th minute of added time in the second half, Cristian Medina scored a goal to make it 2:2. This goal caused a riot. Firecrackers and flares flew from the stands onto the pitch, and fans also appeared on the pitch. The match was interrupted for two hours, and after that time and a VAR review, the referees ruled that Medina was offside. Ultimately, the goal was withdrawn, the players played three minutes of the match, which ended in Morocco's victory.
Despite such emotions on and off the pitch, legendary French footballer Michel Platini decided to criticize the tournament and football at the Olympic Games. In his opinion, football should not be an Olympic sport.
“Football is not an Olympic sport”
“I'm not interested in the French Olympic team. Football is not an Olympic sport. I know the ins and outs of the debate about football's presence at the games and I can say that it is still there only because it fills the stadiums. Football attracts fans and that's it. FIFA has never wanted the best players to play at the games. So we field teams B, C, D, and that's not important,” Platini told midilibre.fr.
– I'm not interested in that at all. Besides, clubs can't pay their stars who spend a month at the European Championships and then at the Olympic Games. It's impossible. Men's football will never be important at the Olympics. The women's tournament is something else – he added.
Platini also addressed the situation in Spain, where the federation is beginning to pressure clubs to release their players for the Olympic tournament. “If the tournament was held in Papua New Guinea, would the clubs be happy not to be able to use their most important players during the European qualifiers?” he asked.
“We have been talking about this for 40 years and there is still no solution. That is why I believe that Kylian Mbappe could only play at the Olympic Games if his club allows him to do so. Otherwise, there is no possibility,” Platini concluded.