Players Missing Games By Playing At The Olympics

The Olympic football competition runs from August 6th to 23rd and the Premiership season kicks off on the 16th. It is essentially an Under 23 event but each country can name up to 3 over-age players.

Coaches must released Under 23 yr players when requested to play for their national side, but since this is a non-Fifa tournament, team coaches can refuse to release players over 23. This impacts on Ryan Babel, who is a probable selection for Holland.

The final is on Aug 23rd so anyone called up (Babel, Mascherano, Lucas, Anderson, etc) will miss two FF games at most; however teams with these players may need a solid bench for at least the first week.

It has been mentioned that a player who performs well at the Olympics may see their value increase and upon return to the EPL. This seems unlikely as people will be getting their football from the Premier League instead of watching the Games (unlike the Euros), and also the calibre of the Games tournament is not as high as other footy comps. Some players might appreciate in price, but its expected that most players will not.

These players will miss the first games of the season:

Victor Anichebe (Everton ) - Nigeria
Javier Mascherano (Liverpool) - Argentina
Kim Do-Heon (West Brom) - South Korea
Jo (Man City) - Brazil
Lucas (Liverpool) - Brazil
Anderson (Man U) - Brazil

Babel (Liverpool) - Netherlands: Altho not named yet, 21 year old Ryan Babel is a likely selection for the Holland squad, despite Rafa not wanting to risk his newly healed ankle.

Ryan Nelsen (Blackburn) - New Zealand: Nelsen has been released for NZ's first two games before returning to be available for Blackburn's first fixture on Aug 16.