AC Milan blocks Kaka from Brazil's Olympics team

It wasn't Kaka who made that decision. He wants to go to China.

It wasn't Brazil that made that decision. Brazil wants Kaka in its lineup.

It was AC Milan, in a petty and totally unnecessary move, that decided it would not permit the reigning FIFA world player of the year -- a player who was the driving force behind the Italian team's European Champions League and FIFA Club World Championship triumphs last season -- to live his dream.

"I would like to" play in Beijing, Kaka said in February, "but I will leave it up to the CBF [the Brazilian soccer federation] and Milan to decide."

Milan's answer was a resounding, "No." Its reasoning was spurious at best.

The 26-year-old Kaka, the club said on its website Sunday, "is already part of Brazil's national side. The club does not think it is right for Kaka to also be involved in official matches for Brazil's Olympic team."

Nonsense. Every one of the 16 teams in Beijing will have national team players on its roster, even the U.S. The rules permit it. The tournament is for players under 23, but each team is allowed three "overage" players.

The use of a limited number of older players was a compromise reached long ago between the International Olympic Committee, which wanted to open the Olympics to all players, and FIFA, which wanted to protect its World Cup.

But because of AC Milan's stance, Chinese fans will be denied the chance of seeing Kaka.

It would have been more honest of AC Milan to have said that it was embarrassed to finish fifth in the Italian Serie A and embarrassed not to have qualified for next season's Champions League. It would have been more honest if the club had said it wanted Kaka to get a break and prepare for next season.

But honesty, apparently, is not the club's style.

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While AC Milan was up to its tricks Sunday, rival Inter Milan was busy defeating Parma, 2-0, on two goals by Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to simultaneously clinch the Italian league championship and consign Parma to life in Serie B next season.

Inter Milan will argue that winning its third Serie A title in a row should give it the lion's share of the media coverage.

Well, yawn.