The Olympic Games will retain their Tokyo 2020 brand name despite being postponed until 2021, the IOC has confirmed, reports standard.co.uk. After weeks of insisting the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games would go ahead as planned this summer, despite the global coronavirus pandemic, Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe confirmed yesterday that he and IOC President, Thomas Bach, had spoken on a telephone call and agreed to delay the event.

The IOC then announced in a statement that the Games would be “rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021” in order to “safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community”. The decision came about after significant pressure from athletes and national Olympic associations, with Canada and Australia both saying they would refuse to send teams if the Games were held in July and August as scheduled. Meanwhile, Australia coach, Graham Arnold has called for the age limit at the Tokyo Olympics football tournament to be raised to ensure that players, who helped their country qualify, remain eligible for it, Reuters reports.

The Olympic men’s tournament is largely a youth affair, with squads allowed only three players above the age of 23. Postponement to 2021 would mean a number of players who have already qualified would become ineligible due to the age limit. Arnold said he had contacted the IOC’s Coordination Commission chief, John Coates, who is also the president of the Australian Olympic Commission, and urged him to help get the age limit raised for players who might otherwise miss out. “It’s probably the only sport at the Olympics which has an age limit and you’d expect that FIFA and the IOC will consider that, for one Olympic campaign, that age group increases so those players get the opportunity to fulfil their dreams and what they’ve achieved,” Arnold said in comments published by Fairfax media yesterday. “I said (to Coates), ‘you need to make sure the age group for the boys is shifted to 24 so those boys who helped qualify their nations to have the chance to still go’.

“That would be, I think, the fair thing.” Australia is among the teams that have qualified for the 16-nation tournament. Football Federation Australia chief executive, James Johnson said Games authorities needed to discuss the age issue. “I think this is a decision the Olympics and FIFA are going to have to talk about, and I’m hoping that anyone that did qualify for the Olympics is able to become an Olympian,” he told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday. “I think that’s really important for the players.”