The Unofficial 2008 Beijing Olympics Blog

Brazilian forward, Diego, is the latest football player to be denied the attendance to the Beijing Olympics by his club, Werder Bremen.

Werder sporting director Klaus Allofs said there was no legal reason for clubs to release their players because, he said, the Olympics are not part of world soccer’s governing body FIFA.

“So I’m not expecting any reaction from FIFA,” Allofs said.

Knowing of the growing issue between clubs and the Olympics, FIFA decided to take some measures, so just last week the FIFA committee announced that clubs were obliged to release players younger than 23 to play in China for their national teams. Diego turned 23 on Feb. 28 and he was nominated for Brazil’s Olympic team on July 8 by coach Dunga. He got his first cap for Brazil in April 2003 as a 19-year-old

Werder released a statement from Diego that said: “The Olympics are my dream. But Werder don’t want to release me. I’ll respect that. I don’t want to cause any problems.”

But Bild newspaper reported on Tuesday that Diego has not given up yet. “I don’t know yet what I’ll do. I’ll wait to see what FIFA decides,” he was quoted as saying.

AC Milan have stopped Kaka from going and Barcelona said Brazilian compatriot Ronaldinho could not attend. Ronaldinho has just moved to Milan from Barca so all eyes are on what the Italian club decide.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our free updates via RSS or e-mail. Find out more about subscribing here. Thanks for visiting!