Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin says the club will put its foot down and refuse to release five star youngsters for an Olyroos training camp and tournament later this month.

The Reds had five players called up by Olympic team coach Josep Gombau for the qualifying competition, to be staged in Myanmar, for the 2018 Asian Football Confederation Under-23 championships.

Riley McGree of Adelaide United is one of the players Griffen is threatening to not release. Credit:Morne de Klerk

But Griffin, who, in his role as the A-League club's representative to the FFA board, is a voluble critic of the game's governing body, says that the competition does not fall inside a FIFA approved window and that the club does not have to release their young players.

Those concerned - midfielders Riley McGree and George Blackwood, goalkeeper Paul Izzo, forward Jordan O'Doherty and defender Benjamin Warland - will be staying in Adelaide rather than travelling to Sydney for a pre tournament camp, Griffin says.