Football at the Summer Olympics

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This article is about the history of association football, also known as soccer, at the
Olympics. For gridiron football, see American football at the Summer Olympics. For the
Australian rules football demonstration, see Australian football at the 1956 Summer
Olympics.

Football at the Summer Olympics

IOC Discipline Code FBL

Governing body FIFA

Events 2 (men: 1; women: 1)

Games

 1896

 1900

 1904

 1908

 1912

 1920

 1924

 1928

 1932

 1936

 1948
  1952

 1956

 1960

 1964

 1968

 1972

 1976

 1980

 1984

 1988

 1992
 1996

 2000

 2004

 2008

 2012

 2016

 2020

 2024

 Medalists

Tournaments (men・women)

Football at the Summer Olympics, referred to as the Olympic Football Tournament,

[note 1]
 has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport,
except 1896 (the inaugural Games) and 1932 (in an attempt to promote the new FIFA
World Cup tournament). Women's football was added to the official program at
the Atlanta 1996 Games.[1]
In order to avoid competition with the World Cup, FIFA have restricted participation of
elite players in the men's tournament in various ways: currently, squads for the men's
tournament are required to be composed of players under 23 years of age, with three
permitted exceptions.
By comparison, the women's football tournament is a full senior-level international
tournament, second in prestige only to the FIFA Women's World Cup.[2][3]

Contents
  1History
o 1.1Pre-World Cup era
 1.1.1Beginnings
 1.1.2British successes
 1.1.31920s and the rise of Uruguay
o 1.2After the first World Cup
 1.2.1Tumultuous '30s
 1.2.2Soviet Bloc dominance amid amateurism controversy
 1.2.3Changes and developments
 1.2.41992–present: Age restrictions introduced
o 1.3British non-involvement
 2Venues
 3Events
 4Competition format
 5Team variants
o 5.1Men
o 5.2Women
 6Men's tournament
o 6.1Participating nations
o 6.2Results
o 6.3Performances by countries
 7Women's tournament
o 7.1Participating nations
o 7.2Results
o 7.3Performances by countries
 8Overall medal table
 9See also
 10Notes
 11References
 12Works cited
 13External links

History[edit]
Pre-World Cup era[edit]
Beginnings[edit]
Football was not included in the program at the first modern Olympic
Games in Athens in 1896, as international football was in its infancy at the time.
However, sources claim that an unofficial football tournament was organised during the
first competition, with participating teams including Athens and Smyrna (Izmir), then part
of the Ottoman Empire.[4] According to Bill Mallon's research, this is an error which has
been perpetuated in multiple texts.[5]
Tournaments were played at the 1900 and 1904 games and the Intercalated
Games of 1906, but these were contested by various clubs and scratch teams.
[4]
 Although the IOC considers the 1900 and 1904 tournaments to be official Olympic
events, they are not recognised by FIFA, and neither recognises the Intercalated
Games today. In 1906 teams from Great Britain, Germany, Austria,
the Netherlands and France withdrew from an unofficial competition and left Denmark,
Smyrna (one Armenian, two Frenchmen and eight Britons), Athens and Thessaloniki to
compete. Denmark won the final against Athens 9–0.
British successes[edit]
In the London Games of 1908 a proper international tournament was organised by the
Football Association, featuring just six teams. The number of teams rose to eleven
in 1912, when the competition was organised by the Swedish Football Association.
Many of these early matches were unbalanced, as evidenced by high scoring games;
two players, Sophus Nielsen in 1908 and Gottfried Fuchs in 1912, each scored ten
goals in a single match. All players were amateurs, in accordance with the Olympic
rules, which meant that countries could not send their full senior national teams. The
National Olympic Committee for Great Britain and Ireland asked the Football
Association to send an English national amateur team. Some of the English members
played with professional clubs, most notably Derby County's Ivan Sharpe, Bradford City
F.C. Harold Walden and Chelsea's Vivian Woodward. England won the first two official
tournaments convincingly, beating Denmark both times.
1920s and the rise of Uruguay[edit]

The Uruguay national football team that won the 1928 Olympic tournament

During the 1920 final against Belgium, the Czechoslovakia national football team
walked off the field to protest the refereeing of John Lewis [6] and the militarised mood
within the stadium in Antwerp. This would be the final all-European football competition
at the Olympic games, with Egypt, the United States, and Uruguay participating in 1924.
[6]
 With teams from new regions the quality of play increased, as did fan interest.
[6]
 Uruguay dominated the tournament, winning their four games by a combined score of
15-1: the final was a 3–0 victory over Switzerland. [6] In 1928, football was the most
popular event at the games[7] and the final was an all-South American affair. Because no
other major international tournament existed yet, Uruguay defeated Argentina 2–1 in
what David Goldblatt says was "football's first world championship".[8] After these
tournaments, FIFA realized that the Olympic movement prevented nations from
competing on an equal footing and, given that the Olympics only permitted amateurs to
participate, did not represent the true strength of the international game. The popularity
of international soccer gave FIFA the incentive to create an international tournament,
and FIFA began organising the World Cup.[7]
After the first World Cup[edit]
Tumultuous '30s[edit]
Following Jules Rimet's proposal in 1929 to initiate a professional World Championship
of Football, the sport was dropped from the 1932 Los Angeles Games by FIFA in an
attempt to promote the new tournament. Football returned to controversy at the 1936
Berlin Games. The German organisers were intent on the return of the game to the
Olympic movement since it guaranteed income into the organisation's coffers. The
Italian team intimidated a referee. Peru scored a contested victory over Austria in
overtime, with a fan invasion of the field at the very end. The Austrian team asked for
the result to be annulled, and the game repeated. FIFA agreed, but the Peruvian team
refused and left the Olympics.[9][10]
Soviet Bloc dominance amid amateurism controversy[edit]
As professionalism spread around the world, the gap in quality between the World Cup
and the Olympics widened. The countries that benefited most were the Soviet
Bloc countries of Eastern Europe, where top athletes were state-sponsored while
retaining their status as amateurs. As a result, young Western amateurs had to face
seasoned and veteran Soviet Bloc teams, which put them at a significant disadvantage.
All Olympic football tournaments from 1948 to 1980 were dominated by the Soviet
Union and its satellites.[11] Between 1948 and 1988, 25 out of 34 Olympic medals were
won by Eastern Europe, with only Sweden (gold in 1948 and bronze in
1952), Denmark (bronze in 1948 and silver in 1960) and Japan (bronze in 1968)
breaking their dominance, the last two of these seeing some changes due to FIFA's
changing of the call-up rules, with only Yugoslavia (bronze in 1984) and the Soviet
Union (gold in 1988) winning medals for the Eastern Bloc.
Changes and developments[edit]
For the 1984 Los Angeles Games, the IOC decided to admit professional players,
however, FIFA still did not want the Olympics to rival the World Cup.
A compromise was struck that allowed teams from countries outside
of UEFA and CONMEBOL to field their strongest sides, while restricting UEFA and
CONMEBOL (the strongest confederations whose teams had played all finals and won
every single World Cup title) countries to players who had not played in a World Cup.
The 1984 rules were maintained also for the 1988 edition, but with an additional rider:
any European and South American footballers who had previously played less than 90
minutes in one single match of the World Cup, were eligible. [12]
1992–present: Age restrictions introduced[edit]
Since 1992, male competitors have been required to be under 23 years old, and
since 1996, a maximum of three over-23-year-old players have been allowed per squad.
[note 2]
 African countries have taken particular advantage of this,
with Nigeria and Cameroon winning in 1996 and 2000 respectively.
Because of the unusual format and the separation from the main national teams that
play the World Cup and top continental tournaments, historically strong men's national
teams have unimpressive Olympic records. Uruguay, who won the two tournaments
prior to the World Cup's creation, only qualified again in 2012, after an 84-year absence.
Argentina won silver twice (1928 and 1996) before the 2004 tournament, but its
appearance in Athens 2004, in which it won the first gold medal, was only their seventh
overall. Brazil's silver medals in the 1984, 1988 and 2012 editions were the best they
had achieved until 2016's gold. Italy has only won the Olympic title once, in 1936,
although along with the two bronzes, the team has the highest number of appearances
in the tournament, with 15, the last in 2008. France won the Olympic title in 1984, but
only qualified twice ever since. A team from Germany won the gold medal only once,
in 1976 (East Germany), and the reunified team did not make an Olympic appearance
until 2016, when they won silver. Spain has won gold as hosts in 1992, and followed it
with two silver medals (in 2000 and 2020, having also won a third in 1920), along with a
few failures to qualify.
British non-involvement[edit]
Main articles: Great Britain Olympic football team and Great Britain women's Olympic
football team
Football in the United Kingdom has no single governing body, and there are separate
teams for the UK's four Home Nations: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Further to this, only the English Football Association (FA) is affiliated to the British
Olympic Association (BOA), and the FA entered "Great Britain" teams to the football
tournaments until 1972.
In 1974, the FA abolished the distinction between "amateur" and "professional" football,
and ceased to enter the Olympics. Even though FIFA has allowed professionals at the
Olympics since 1984, the FA did not re-enter, as the Home Nations were concerned
that a united British Olympic team would set a precedent that might cause FIFA to
question their separate status in other FIFA competitions, and even their status on
and/or the existence of the International Football Association Board.[14][15]
When London was selected to host the 2012 Games, there was pressure on the English
FA to exercise the host nation's automatic right to field a team. [16] In 2009 the plan
agreed by the FA with the Welsh FA, Scottish FA and Irish FA was only to field English
players;[17] however the BOA overruled this,[18] and ultimately there were Welsh players in
the men's squad and Scots players in the women's squad. [19] After the 2012 games, the
FA decided that no team would be entered in subsequent men's tournaments, but was
open to fielding a women's team again.[20]
For the 2020 tournament, FIFA stated that the women's UK team (not applied to the
men's UK team) may enter the Olympics after the four FAs agreed, depending on the
performance of women's English team in 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup (which serves
as the European qualification for the Olympics).[21][22]

Venues[edit]
Main article: List of Olympic venues in football
Due to the number of large stadia required for the Olympic tournament, venues in
distant cities – often more than 200 km (120 mi) away from the main host – are typically
used for the football tournament. In an extreme example, two early-round venues for
the 1984 Games were on the East Coast of the United States, well over 2,000 miles
(3,200 km) from the host city of Los Angeles. The next Games held in the United States,
the 1996 Games, were unique in that no matches were held in the host city of Atlanta;
the nearest venue and the site of the finals was 65 miles (105 km) away on
the University of Georgia campus in Athens. Counting the 2016 and 2020 Summer
Olympics, there are 127 venues that have hosted Olympic football, the most of any
sport.

Edition of the Olympic

City Stadium
Games

 Athens 1896 No official football tournament

 Paris 1900 Paris Vincennes Velodrome

 St. Louis 1904 St. Louis Francis Field

 London 1908 London White City Stadium

Stockholm Olympic Stadium

 Stockholm 1912 Stockholm Råsunda Stadium

Tranebergs Idrottsplats

Olympic Stadium
Antwerp
Stadion Broodstraat

 Antwerp 1920
Brussels Stade de l'Union St. Gilloise

Ghent Stade d'A.A. La Gantoise

 Stade Olympique, Colombes

Stade Bergeyre

 Paris 1924 Paris

Stade de Paris, Saint-Ouen

Stade Pershing, Vincennes

Olympisch Stadion

 Amsterdam 1928 Amsterdam

Harry Elte Stadium

 Los Angeles 1932 No football tournament

Olympiastadion

Poststadion, Tiergarten
 Berlin 1936 Berlin
Mommsenstadion, Charlottenburg

Hertha-BSC-Platz

 London 1948 London Empire Stadium, Wembley

White Hart Lane, Tottenham

Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace

Craven Cottage, Fulham
 Griffin Park, Brentford

Arsenal Stadium, Highbury

Lynn Road, Ilford

Green Pond Road, Walthamstow

Champion Hill, Dulwich

Brighton Goldstone Ground

Portsmouth Fratton Park

Olympiastadion
Helsinki
Töölö Football Grounds

Turku Kupittaa Stadium

 Helsinki 1952
Tampere Ratina Stadium

Lahti Kisapuisto

Kotka Kotka Stadium

Melbourne Cricket Ground

 Melbourne 1956 Melbourne
Olympic Park Stadium
 Rome Flaminio Stadium

Florence Stadio Comunale

Grosseto Stadio Comunale

 Rome 1960 Livorno Stadio Ardenza

Pescara Stadio Adriatico

L'Aquila Stadio Comunale

Naples Stadio Fuorigrotta

National Olympic Stadium

Tokyo Prince Chichibu Memorial Field

 Tokyo 1964 Komazawa Stadium

Ōmiya Omiya Soccer Stadium

Yokohama Mitsuzawa Football Stadium

 Mexico City 1968 Mexico City Azteca Stadium

Puebla Estadio Cuauhtémoc

Guadalajara Estadio Jalisco

 León Estadio León

Munich Olympiastadion

Augsburg Rosenaustadion

Ingolstadt ESV-Stadion
 Munich 1972
Regensburg Jahn Stadium

Nuremberg Städtisches Stadium

Passau Drei Flüsse Stadion

Montreal Olympic Stadium

Sherbrooke Municipal Stadium

 Montreal 1976

Toronto Varsity Stadium

Ottawa Lansdowne Stadium

 Moscow 1980 Grand Central Lenin Stadium

Moscow
Dynamo Stadium

Leningrad Kirov Stadium

Kyiv Republican Stadium

 Minsk Dinamo Stadium

Pasadena, California Rose Bowl

Boston Harvard Stadium

 Los Angeles 1984

Annapolis, Maryland Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium

Stanford, California Stanford Stadium

Olympic Stadium
Seoul
Dongdaemun Stadium

Busan Busan Stadium

 Seoul 1988
Daegu Daegu Stadium

Daejeon Daejeon Stadium

Gwangju Gwangju Stadium

 Barcelona 1992 Camp Nou

Barcelona
Estadi de Sarrià

Sabadell Estadi de la Nova Creu Alta

Zaragoza Estadio La Romareda

 Valencia Estadio Luis Casanova

Athens, Georgia Sanford Stadium

Orlando, Florida Citrus Bowl

 Atlanta 1996 Birmingham, Alabama Legion Field

Miami, Florida Miami Orange Bowl

Washington, D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium

Olympic Stadium
Sydney
Sydney Football Stadium

Brisbane Brisbane Cricket Ground

 Sydney 2000

Adelaide Hindmarsh Stadium

Canberra Bruce Stadium

Melbourne Melbourne Cricket Ground

 Athens 2004 Marousi Olympic Stadium

Piraeus Karaiskakis Stadium

Patras Pampeloponnisiako Stadium

 Volos Panthessaliko Stadium

Thessaloniki Kaftanzoglio Stadium

Heraklion Pankritio Stadium

National Stadium
Beijing
Workers' Stadium

Tianjin Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium

 Beijing 2008
Shanghai Shanghai Stadium

Qinhuangdao Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium

Shenyang Shenyang Olympic Sports Center Stadium

London Wembley Stadium

Glasgow Hampden Park

Cardiff Millennium Stadium

 London 2012

Coventry City of Coventry Stadium[note 3]

Manchester Old Trafford

Newcastle upon Tyne St James' Park[note 3]

 Maracanã
Rio de Janeiro
João Havelange Olympic Stadium

São Paulo Arena Corinthians

 Rio 2016 Brasília Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha

Salvador Arena Fonte Nova[note 4]

Belo Horizonte Estádio Mineirão

Manaus Arena da Amazônia

Tokyo Tokyo Stadium[note 5]

Yokohama International Stadium Yokohama[note 5]

 Tokyo 2020
Kashima Kashima Soccer Stadium

Saitama Saitama Stadium 2002

Rifu Miyagi Stadium

Sapporo Sapporo Dome

Events[edit]
 Y
Ev 9 0 0 0 1 2 2 2 3 3 4 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 0 0 0 1 1 2 2
ea
ent 6 0 4 8 2 0 4 8 2 6 8 2 6 0 4 8 2 6 0 4 8 2 6 0 4 8 2 6 0 4
rs

Me
n's
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 28
eve
nt

Wo
me
n's X X X X X X X X 8
eve
nt

Tot
0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
al