Football at the Summer Olympics

A men's football (soccer) tournament has been held at every Summer Olympic Games except 1896 and 1932. Women's football was added in 1996.

Contents

1 History

2 Qualifying

3 Women's tournament

4 Medallists

4.1 Men
4.2 Women

History

Football was not on the original modern Olympic Games programme; perhaps unsurprisingly, as international football was still in its infancy in 1896. However an unofficial football tournament was organised during the first competition. Complete records have been lost but it seems that only two games may have been played. An Athens eleven lost to a team representing Smyrna (Izmir then part of the Ottoman Empire). Smyrna went on to be beaten 15-0 by a team from Denmark. Demonstration tournaments were also played at the 1900 and 1904 games, as well as at the "Intercalated Games" of 1906, but these were contested by various clubs and scratch teams, and are not considered to be official Olympic events. In 1906 teams from Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Netherlands and France were withdrawn from an unofficial competition and left Denmark, Smyrna (1 Armenian, 2 Frenchmen and 8 Britons), Athens and Thessaloniki Music Club to compete. Denmark won the final against Athens 9-0.

It was not until the London Games of 1908 that a proper international tournament was organised, featuring just six teams, rising to 11 in 1912. These early matches were fairly unbalanced, as witnessed by some large scorelines; two players, Sophus Nielsen in 1908 and Gottfried Fuchs in 1912 each scored 10 goals in a match, a record that would stand for over 90 years. All players were amateurs, in accordance with the Olympic spirit, which meant that some countries could not send their full international team. The United Kingdom (who compete at the Olympics under the name of Great Britain) got around this problem by sending the England national amateur team, who nevertheless managed to win the first two official tournaments convincingly, beating Denmark on both occasions.

With the launch of the Football World Cup in 1930, FIFA did not want the Olympic tournament to overshadow their own showpiece event, so football was dropped completely from the programme for the 1932 Los Angeles Games, although it returned at the 1936 Berlin Games. As professionalism spread around the world, the gap in quality between the two tournaments widened. The countries that benefited most were the Soviet Bloc countries of Eastern Europe, where the top athletes were state sponsored while retaining their status as "amateurs". Between 1948 and 1980, 23 out of 27 Olympic medals were won by Eastern European countries, with only Denmark, Sweden and Japan breaking the dominance.

For the 1984 Los Angeles Games, the IOC felt a change was necessary to bring interest back to the football competition, and decided to admit professional players. FIFA still did not want the Olympics to rival the World Cup, so a compromise was struck that allowed teams from Africa, Asia and Oceania to field their strongest professional sides, while only allowing European and American teams to pick players who had not previously played in a World Cup. Many teams therefore played very young teams, including France, who won the 1984 Olympic title in between two semi-final appearances at World Cups.

The idea of youth teams caught favour at both FIFA and the IOC, and since 1992 all players in the Olympics must be under 23 years of age, with three over overage players allowed per squad. The tournament is now effectively an "Under-23 World Cup", complementing FIFA's own tournaments at Under-20 and Under-17 levels. The new format allows teams from around the world to compete equally, and African countries have taken particular advantage of this, with Nigeria and Cameroon winning in 1996 and 2000 respectively.

Because of the unusual format, several of the strongest footballing countries have fairly unimpressive Olympic records. The Netherlands won bronze in the first three tournaments, but have not reached the finals since 1952. Uruguay won the tournament in their first two attempts, in 1924 and 1928, but those are their only finals appearances. Argentina had won silver twice before the 2004 Athens Games, but their appearance in Athens, in which it won the gold medal, was only their fifth overall.

Great Britain's performances also declined after 1912, and their last appearance at the finals was in 1960. After 1974, when the British football associations abolished the distinction between "amateur" and "professional" football, Great Britain no longer entered the qualifying competition, and this continued to be the case even after the change of format in 1984. The main obstacle these days to their participation is political, since the four UK nations - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - have separate international football teams, but compete together as Great Britain in the Olympics. Producing a single team for the Olympics may lead to calls for the UK's special four-team status to be abolished altogether. However, there has been speculation that the UK may field united men's and women's teams for the 2012 Games, especially if they are awarded to London. [1] (http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/NewsFromTheFA/Postings/2004/02/FABacksOlympicbid.htm)

Qualifying

The qualifying tournament, like that for the World Cup, is organised along continental lines. Most continental confederations organise a special Under-23 qualifying tournament, although the European qualifiers are drawn from the finalists of the UEFA Under-21 Championship. For the 2004 Athens Games, the number of places alllocated to each continent was:

Europe - 4 (including hosts Greece)
Africa - 4
Asia - 3
South America - 2
North America - 2
Oceania - 1

Women's tournament

Unlike the men's tournament, the women's tournament is contested between full national sides, with no age restrictions.

The first women's Olympic tournament was held at the 1996 Atlanta Games, with the hosts, the United States, being arguably the strongest team in the world. The United States did indeed win the gold medal, and picked up silver in 2000 after an extra time defeat to Norway. The US team was involved in another extra time final match in 2004, this time defeating Brazil.

Qualifying for the women's tournament is much less organised, due to the lack of countries playing at a high enough standard. The allocation of places for the 2004 Games was:

Europe - 3 (including hosts Greece)
Africa - 1
Asia - 2
South America - 1
North America - 2
Oceania - 1

Medallists

Men

Year	Host	Final			Third Place Match
Year	Host	Gold Medal	Score	Silver Medeal	Bronze Medal	Score	Fourth Place
1908 Details	London	Great Britain	2 - 0	Denmark	Netherlands	2 - 0	Sweden
1912 Details	Stockholm	Great Britain	4 - 2	Denmark	Netherlands	9 - 0	Missing image Finland_flag_large.png Finland
1920 Details	Antwerp	Belgium	n / a⁽¹⁾	Spain	Netherlands	n / a⁽¹⁾	Missing image Italy_flag_large.png Italy
1924 Details	Paris	Uruguay	3 - 0	Missing image Switzerland_flag_large.png Switzerland	Sweden	1 - 1 aet	Netherlands
1924 Details	Paris	Uruguay	3 - 0	Missing image Switzerland_flag_large.png Switzerland	Match replay: 3 - 1
1928 Details	Amsterdam	Uruguay	1 - 1 aet	Argentina	Missing image Italy_flag_large.png Italy	11 - 3	Egypt
1928 Details	Amsterdam	Match replay: 2 - 1			Missing image Italy_flag_large.png Italy	11 - 3	Egypt
1932	Los Angeles	No football tournament			No football tournament
1936 Details	Berlin	Missing image Italy_flag_large.png Italy	2 - 1 aet	Austria	Norway	3 - 2	Poland
1948 Details	London	Sweden	3 - 1	Missing image Flag_of_SFR_Yugoslavia.png Yugoslavia	Denmark	5 - 3	Great Britain
1952 Details	Helsinki	Hungary	2 - 0	Missing image Flag_of_SFR_Yugoslavia.png Yugoslavia	Sweden	2 - 0	West Germany
1956 Details	Melbourne	Missing image Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.png USSR	1 - 0	Missing image Flag_of_SFR_Yugoslavia.png Yugoslavia	Bulgaria	3 - 0	India
1960 Details	Rome	Missing image Flag_of_SFR_Yugoslavia.png Yugoslavia	3 - 1	Denmark	Hungary	2 - 1	Missing image Italy_flag_large.png Italy
1964 Details	Tokyo	Hungary	2 - 1	Czechoslovakia	East Germany	3 - 1	UAR
1968 Details	Mexico City	Hungary	4 - 1	Bulgaria	Missing image Japan_flag_large.png Japan	2 - 0	Missing image Mexico_flag_large.png Mexico
1972 Details	Munich	Poland	2 - 1	Hungary	Missing image Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.png USSR	2 - 2⁽²⁾ aet	East Germany
1976 Details	Montreal	East Germany	3 - 1	Poland	Missing image Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.png USSR	2 - 0	Brazil
1980 Details	Moscow	Czechoslovakia	1 - 0	East Germany	Missing image Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.png USSR	2 - 0	Missing image Flag_of_SFR_Yugoslavia.png Yugoslavia
1984 Details	Los Angeles	France	2 - 0	Brazil	Missing image Flag_of_SFR_Yugoslavia.png Yugoslavia	2 - 1	Missing image Italy_flag_large.png Italy
1988 Details	Seoul	Missing image Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.png USSR	2 - 1 aet	Brazil	West Germany	3 - 0	Missing image Italy_flag_large.png Italy
1992 Details	Barcelona	Spain	3 - 2	Poland	Ghana	1 - 0	Australia
1996 Details	Atlanta	Nigeria	3 - 2	Argentina	Brazil	5 - 0	Missing image Portugal_flag_large.png Portugal
2000 Details	Sydney	Missing image Cameroon_flag_large.png Cameroon	2 - 2 asdet	Spain	Chile	2 - 0	USA
2000 Details	Sydney	5 - 3 on penalty shootout			Chile	2 - 0	USA
2004 Details	Athens	Argentina	1 - 0	Paraguay	Missing image Italy_flag_large.png Italy	1 - 0	Missing image Iraq_flag_large_1991.png Iraq
2008 Details	Beijing

⁽¹⁾ In 1916, Czechoslovakia abandonded the final match against Belgium after 39 minutes with the latter up 2-0. A mini-tournament to figure out the other medalists was held, and Spain beat Netherlands for second place 3-1.
⁽²⁾ In 1972, Soviet Union and East Germany played to a 2-2 tie for third place after extra time. Both were awarded Bronze Medals.