LONDON (AP) -The Olympic flame in Beijing won't be lit until Friday yet the first race is already gathering pace.
The men's football competition is in turmoil and clubs are running to an appeals tribunal to release their stars from traveling to China.
Barcelona doesn't want Lionel Messi to be in Argentina's lineup even though he was named on the squad a month ago. German clubs Schalke and Werder Bremen are trying to bring home Brazilian stars Diego and Rafinha and a final decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) should come Wednesday.
There is little time to work with because the competition kicks off on Thursday, a day before the official opening of the Games. That means some of the players don't know whether they will trying to win a gold medal for their countries or back with their clubs preparing for early season domestic or European competitions.
It's another typically farcical situation that seems to hit football just when the world's most popular sport is trying to improve its battered image.
And it also throws open the debate whether football should be in the Olympics at all.
Leaving aside women's Olympic football, which doesn't have these problems but is also struggling to broaden its list of realistic gold medal contenders, the men's tournament has never had the same impact as athletics, swimming or gymnastics when the games come round every four years.
That's probably because competitors who take part in those other sports, although they have their own world championships, get far more fame from winning an Olympic gold medal.
Football is different. The World Cup is its equivalent of the Olympics and although the likes of Nigeria's Nwankwo Kanu and Argentina's Carlos Tevez are proud of winning Olympic gold medals, they'd get far more adulation if they had World Cup titles.
The Olympic men's tournament is restricted to players age 23 or under with teams allowed to call up three overage stars.
Yet look at some of the stars who have graced the Olympics.
The Brazilian team of 1996 in Atlanta included Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Bebeto and Rivaldo, who all played in the World Cup final two years later. Argentina's lineup in Atlanta included the likes of Roberto Ayala, Javier Zanetti, Diego Simeone, Hernan Crespo, Ariel Ortega and Jose Chamot who all became regulars on the powerful national team.
Italy's team from four years ago had Andrea Pirlo, now one of the most highly rated midfielders in the game and the winning Argentina lineup had Tevez, now scoring goals for Manchester United.
