Schalke and Werder Bremen have used a flurry of legal steps in a bid to keep their players away from the approaching Olympics, with the German clubs hoping for final victory this week over FIFA.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will hand down a ruling by tomorrow, only one day before Thursday’s start of the men’s soccer tournament. If the decision goes in the clubs’ favor, Brazilian players Diego and Rafinha will be recalled at the last minute by Bremen and Schalke respectively.
The two teams responded quickly to last week’s ruling from FIFA that said they must release players aged 23 or under for the Beijing Games.
Within hours, the clubs filed an appeal with CAS. They were joined by Barcelona, contacted five days earlier, who want to keep Lionel Messi in Spain.
The sports court’s ruling is likely to be followed closely across Europe, since it deals with the disputed issue of a player’s release to national teams.
Both German teams say their goal was to take the final decision out of the hands of FIFA and move it to the more impartial CAS.
Blatter angered the two German clubs with remarks about how keeping the players home would be “against the spirit” of Olympic regulations.
Bremen were also upset because they believed that FIFA had months to deal with the clubs’ objections. Bremen manager Klaus Allofs has said he believes the conflict could have been avoided.
“The loser is the clubs, because we pay the players but don’t get anything from them,” Allofs was quoted as saying by the Kreiszeitung newspaper. “No, the loser is actually the people from FIFA, because they have shown themselves to be incapable in this whole affair.”
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