BEIJING -- Three European clubs won an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday to keep their players out of the Olympic football tournament. Two, however, will still play, and the other might.
Sport's highest court ruled Argentine forward Lionel Messi, Werder Bremen's Diego and Rafinha of Schalke can be kept out of the Beijing Games by their clubs.
Despite the ruling, Messi still wants to play for his country instead of returning to FC Barcelona, according to Argentina coach Sergio Batista.
Barcelona postponed making a decision on whether to demand Messi's return until its coach talked to the star. Team officials were unable to contact Messi in China, club sporting director Manel Estiarte said in New York.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola planned to call Messi again either before or after Wednesday night's exhibition game against Major League Soccer's Red Bulls in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Barcelona was scheduled to return home to Spain immediately after the match.
After the ruling, Schalke and Werder Bremen offered to let Rafinha and Diego stay with Brazil for the Olympic tournament.
However, both demanded the Brazilian football federation quickly "create the conditions" for the players' involvement -- for example, by providing evidence of insurance coverage in case they are injured.
"We are pleased that CAS has confirmed our legal interpretation," Schalke manager Andreas Mueller said. "It is laid down quite clearly in the FIFA statutes."
Bremen manager Klaus Allofs said the club's preparation for the beginning of the German season, "which, because of the legal dispute, largely had to be conducted without Diego, is so far advanced that a recall at this point in time would no longer make any sense in sporting terms."
Schalke's Mueller echoed that.
"We don't feel we're the big winners because an impossible situation has arisen as a result of the delay," he said. "Five minutes before the Olympic football tournament kicks off we now have to decide whether to recall the player or not."
"Our decision would have been different if the legal position had been clarified earlier," Mueller said. "In that case we wouldn't have let Rafinha go under any circumstances."
"FIFA and the CBF were aware of the situation months ago. I believe the matter was deliberately delayed until just before the Olympics to put the clubs in an awkward position."
