Federations push for  more footballers in Paris

 National associations are pushing to avoid cuts for the Olympic Games and to allow the final lists to be expanded to 22 players instead of the 18 set by FIFA for the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games will be held in Paris from July 24, with Spain and Argentina taking on Uzbeki­stan and Morocco, respectively in what will be the debut for both teams and the Olympic disciplines at the 33rd modern Olympic Games.

The regulations state that each team can field a final squad of 18 players (3 of whom can be over 23 years of age), plus four addi­tional players as reserves, who can only be called up in the event of a serious injury.

The federations are pushing for the 22 registered players (18 plus 4 reserves) to be allowed to take part in the Games, without having to discard four of the players who have already been called up or who can only be called up in the event of a serious injury.

The last Olympic Games, Tokyo 2020 (to be held in 2021), was the first to introduce the possibility of calling up to 22 players with­out having to make cuts, but this decision was made because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, all the countries taking part in the tournament want to rein­troduce this rule and are working together to put pressure on FIFA in order to allow them to field 22 players, although this permission could only be granted with the prior approval of the International Olympic Committee.

The Olympic Football Tourna­ment consists of 16 teams divided into 4 groups of 4, with the top two teams in each group qualifying for the tournament. The top two teams in each group will progress to the quarter-finals, with the win­ners progressing to the semi-finals to compete for the medals.

The semi-finals and the battle for the medals will take place on August 5, the medal matches on 8 August (third place for the bronze medal) and the final on August 9 at the Parc des Princes starting at 18:00 French time.

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