Football's world governing body withdrew a proposal at its Congress in Nassau to restrict players in the London 2012 Games and beyond to under-21s after warnings the sport could be kicked out of the Olympics.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter suggested a likely scenario will be to keep the existing under-23 limit but with no over-age players.

Three over-age players are allowed under current rules.

That would have allowed the likes of Rooney, who will be 26 by the time of the London Games, to join Britain's team, which will be made up entirely of English players.

Blatter insisted that football's status as an Olympic sport was not at risk but said the size of the tournaments could be threatened, he had been warned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge.

Blatter said: "There have been declarations by some members of the IOC Executive Board that if we are going to lower the age limit again that we will be kicked out of Olympics.

"I spoke with Rogge and he said that will not be the case but we could suffer with another principle - we have 28 teams involved, 16 men's and 12 women's and we could lose that privilege."

A task force will now be set up to look at the issue and Blatter confirmed the scenario of only scrapping the three over-age players was a strong possibility.

He added: "Only fools never change their minds.

"It's a possibility we remain as 23 and stop the three over-age players - we don't play the under-17 tournament with three over-age players, that would be cheating."

Blatter said another approach was that used in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics when there was no age limit but no player could have appeared in a previous World Cup.

Last year Blatter had claimed that he wanted·lder players who wish to compete in the Olympics to be released from their club obligations.

FIFA's Executive Committee had voted in favour of the under-21 limit after last summer's Beijing Olympics when Werder Bremen and Barcelona successfully challenged their obligation to release Diego and Lionel Messi for the Games, although both ended up playing in the tournament.Football's world governing body withdrew a proposal at its Congress in Nassau to restrict players in the London 2012 Games and beyond to under-21s after warnings the sport could be kicked out of the Olympics.