The inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Singapore has ended after 12 days of intensive competition. For football, it lasted 13 days as the participating teams kicked off earlier at Jalan Besar.
While the other sports had traditional powerhouses showing their future talents in the various disciplines, football stood out as an anomaly.
Mention Haiti, Vanuatu, Equatorial Guinea and even hosts Singapore to the global powers-that-be, and many will wonder what these football minnows are even bothering to appear in a global showpiece. Never mind the Olympics and World Cup. Youth Olympic Games football finals for them?
It did happen, courtesy of the ingenious thinking of the world football governing body FIFA, or possibly their creative secretary general Joseph Sepp Blatter. Even the format of the football competitions is very divergent from the usual norm of qualifiers, or even in the 2009 Asian Youth Games, a test multi-sport event for the YOG.
Just a recap for those who have little or no idea about what went on in the football segment last year, the major football powers of the continent, save for Japan and Australia, sent their brightest 14-year-old players to compete for supremacy at this level.
The Singapore Cubs tried, but the other teams that reached the eight-team group stage finals proved stronger and technically more competent. An upward curve for the hosts who crashed out propping their pool.
Eventually, it was the Koreas - North and South - who reached the final, with the wealthier boys winning gold.
Fast forward to 2010 YOG. Only six teams each in boys' and girls' football events can participate, with each representing their continent.
As hosts, Singapore fielded their boys' team, virtually the same crop that featured in the Asian Youth Games, representing Asia.
Completing the line-up in the boys' category are Montenegro (Europe), Vanuatu (Oceania), Haiti (North America, supposed to be Cuba but they pulled weeks before the tournament kicked off), Bolivia (South America) and Zimbabwe (Africa, for the older readers the country that former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelar represented).
Iran (Asia), Turkey (Europe), Trinidad and Tobago (North America) and Chile (South America) are well-known established football nations who have appeared in the World Cup this century - but only for the males. Their girls were the ones playing YOG football in Singapore instead.
Blatter must have a pretty cute brain, picking not one, but two Guineas to participate with them - Papua New Guinea (Oceania) and Equatorial Guinea (Africa).
Considering the make-up of the teams in the respective events, one cannot help but wonder whether there is some kind of football standard categorisation and ranking chart hidden somewhere in the FIFA headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Apart from Montenegro qualifying from a rather haphazardly organised UEFA Boys qualifying tournament (please enlighten me on this further if anyone has a better idea), the rest were invited to play, when conventional thinking would have been them watching the proceedings miles away on their television sets after failing to qualify - again - save for the hosts.
As much as Blatter and FIFA may want to give these football minnows exposure to the global television audience (not as far reaching as the FIFA World Cup held earlier this year in South Africa), the matches only showed up differing football standards of the continents.
The Bolivian boys came to the Lion City, played four, won four, smashed Haiti twice - 9-0 in the group stage and 5-0 in the final despite playing more than one half a boy less. Their football brains and techniques are streets apart from their rivals and thoroughly deserving of the gold.
And to think the gold medalists are one of the weakest teams in the continent. Ditto the Chilean girls.
Now that this precedent has been set, both FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are finding themselves in quite a quagmire. IOC President Jacques Rogge may point a finger at Blatter in private, but Blatter may end up having the last laugh - with unintended consequences.
When the YOG circus moves to Nanjing, China in 2014, will FIFA dare to do the same thing, or resort to some qualifying system? The final solution, whatever it is, will be far from trivial.
Unlike Singapore, which beyond Southeast Asia is a relative minnow in football, China is a half-decent football nation. While it is ok to invite Bolivia to defend their gold for themselves and South America, will Luxembourg (Europe), Malawi (Africa), St Kitts and Nevis (North America) and Samoa (Oceania) be platable to IOC and the Chinese audience in its retained tournament format from Singapore?
Never the YOG. Imagine if one day a not-so-established sporting nation, say Mongolia, get to host the World Cup. As hosts, they automatically qualify. To protect the competitive integrity of the tournament, the qualification rounds continue and the best teams arrive to grand facilities in Ulaan Battar and some other Mongolian cities.
How will FIFA react if (apologies to the Mongolian readers) the following happens in Mongolia's group also involving England, Brazil and United States of America and the scores read... Mongolia 0 England 8, Mongolia 1 Brazil 14, Mongolia 1 USA 3? Your answer is as good as mine.
Rogge has the simple solution to throwing football out of the Olympic events on a whim, however heavy the consequences of such a decision will be. How about Blatter and succeeding FIFA bosses though?
Looks like Blatter and his men should seek Asian Football Confederation President Mohammad Bin Hammam for advice. After all, the latter has exactly done that categorisation for the nations in the continent.
Apart from the main tier AFC Asian Cup (countries) and AFC Champions League (clubs), there are lower-level competitions such as the AFC Cup and AFC President's Cup (for clubs) and the AFC Challenge Cup (for third-tier developing football nations) to accommodate the rest and keep all the tournaments competitive without despairing and lopsided results.
In fact, the AFC Challenge Cup have allowed teams such as India to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup finals on the back door. Who knows, perhaps Hammam's ideas for Asia could help Blatter and even Rogge do likewise!
If track and field, swimming and selected other sports have classification matches and even B Finals, why don't football follow the trend and do likewise?
It is going to be very humourous. Imagine if Singapore qualify for the main Olympics football tournament - the 16-team C finals (akin to the third division in a domestic league) - in 2016. Sure our Young Lions will still get to take part in Brazil, but will not get a sniff of samba football in competitive play - but against say Jamaica, Romania and Nigeria.
One YOG experiment by FIFA and IOC. Many dilemmas ahead. Definitely worth playing the options around during these lull years ahead.
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