BEIJING, Aug 22: The International Rugby Board doesn’t want a football-style club vs. country player row to affect its chances of getting a seven-a-side version of the sport into the Olympics.

IRB regulations state that clubs are obligated to release players for international play, but those don’t mention the Olympics. So the Dublin-based governing body will use a council meeting in November to set a specific agreement to secure players’ release for the Olympic Games period.

“It’s very important that the top players will be with us,” IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset said Friday. “Everyone - the clubs, the unions, the players, everyone _ said that any updated version (of the regulations) ... has to be carved out within that the players will be released for the Olympic Games.”

Like football, the main concern for rugby in the player availability situation would be the wealthy European clubs which contract players from all over the world. Some of Europe’s biggest football clubs won an appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport against being forced to release star players for the Olympic tournament. Rugby is pushing for its condensed Sevens format — a regular side has 15 players — to be included in the Olympics.—AP