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Should football clubs be forced to release players for the Olympics?


Barcelona are just one of the clubs at the centre of a row with Fifa over whether they should release one of their star players, Lionel Messi, for next month's Beijing Olympics. Fifa have decreed that all players aged under 23 who have been called up by their national team's must report for the Games, despite the fact the Olympics were not included on Fifa's international match calendar and come at a time when teams are deep into pre-season training and preparing for European qualifying games. Do you agree with Fifa's decision? Should the choice not be down to the club, who pay the players' wages, and the players themselves, to weigh up representing their country in the Olympics against preparing for the new domestic season?

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