Fifa group recommends Olympic football age limit increase for rescheduled Tokyo Games
The age limit for the men's football tournament at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 looks potentially set to be raised.
While there are no age restrictions on women's football at the Olympics, the men's competition is traditionally for under-23s, with coaches permitted to pick three overage players in their final squads.
Football governing bodies from nations such as Australia and South Korea have called for that limit to be increased next summer, to ensure that certain players who helped their respective nations qualify for the Olympics are still able to compete at the event.
The Tokyo Olympics - initially set to be held this summer - have been postponed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and are now scheduled to take place between July 23 and August 8, 2021.
On Friday, the Fifa-Confederations working group - established to address the consequences of the coronavirus crisis for football - held their first conference call and unanimously approved several recommendations to the Bureau of the Fifa Council, who will have the final say.
Among those recommendations was to "keep the eligibility criteria originally foreseen (players born on or after 01.01.1997 and three additional players)" for the men's Olympic football tournament in 2021.
The group also recommended the postponement of all scheduled June internationals across both the men's and women's football calendars and called for "bilateral discussions with confederations" regarding men's 2022 World Cup qualifiers to establish a revised match schedule.
They also proposed that the Women's Under-17 and Under-20 World Cups - due to be held this year in Panama/Costa Rica and India respectively - be postponed.
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