4 Berths still up for grabs for Olympic games

The UAE now joins a prestigious list of 12 national teams already qualified through to the London 2012 Olympic men's football tournament from July 26 to August 11, while a further four berths are still up for grabs via the play-offs. Set to rub shoulders with the confirmed likes of hosts Great Britain, Brazil, Spain and Uruguay along with South Korea, Japan, Morocco, Egypt, Switzerland, Belarus and Gabon — the UAE's players will have the unique opportunity to grace legendary theatres of football such as Wembley, Old Trafford, Hampden and St James' Park. Each of the 16 squads will consist of 18 players of which no more than three may be born before January 1, 1989. This means the team can have three players over the age of 23, opening the door to the likes of David Beckham walking out as captain for Great Britain or Ronaldinho coming back in at Brazil. For other senior Spanish or English stars set to play in Euro 2012 almost consecutively, however, the opportunity may have to pass. The football event has been a mainstay at the Olympics for well over a century with the first tournament being played in the Paris Olympics back in 1900, since then there have been 24 editions. Hungary have dominated the men's competition since its inception with three gold medals, one silver and a bronze, closely followed by Great Britain with three gold medals and Argentina with two gold medals, two silver. Great Britain were the first winners back in 1900 while the most recent at the Olympics in Beijing, China was Argentina. The format is simple. Sixteen teams, four groups of four, play out in a round robin format filtering two from each group into a quarter-finals. The winners here enter the semi-finals followed by the final. London 2012's group draw will be made on April 24th only after every other global play-off from the six confederations is complete.