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Olympic Soccer

travoholic | Sep 13, 2009 |

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Soccer (football) is the most popular sport in the world to watch and play and, as such, has been played as part of every Olympics except for in 1896 and 1932. Women's soccer was added to the Olympics in 1996 and it has been a part of every Games since then. The first two men's competitions were contested by various clubs and scratch teams and are not officially recognized by FIFA as official tournaments. Soccer was dropped from the 1932 Olympic schedule due to FIFA having just launched the World Cup but it was reinstated into the following Games.

Due to the number of games and the need for large venues, Olympic soccer is one event that is typically played in a variety of stadiums, usually in cities all across the host country. In Atlanta in 1996 soccer at the Olympics wasn't even played in the host city and the finals were held 105 kilometers away in Athens, Georgia.

In the men's competition, Argentina have won the gold medal the past two years in Beijing, China and Athens, Greece. Italy have made the most Olympic appearances with 15 and Hungary and the UK have each been the most successful teams with three gold medals apiece (although all of the UK wins came in 1912 and earlier.) On the women's side, the United States have dominated with three out of four gold medals and one silver. Norway, Germany, China and Brazil are the only other nations to win medals out of the 16 nations who have competed thus far.

Olympic qualification for soccer is organized along continental lines, similar to qualification for the FIFA World Cup. In Beijing the number of spots allocated were as follows: Europe 4, Asia 4, Africa 3, South America 2, North America 2, and Oceania 1 for a total of 16 teams competing to be Olympic champions. Since 1992 teams in the men's events must be made up of players under 23 years of age with three older players being allowed per side. This has meant that traditionally strong soccer nations like The Netherlands and Italy have not done well but weaker teams like Nigeria and Cameroon have been able to win once each.

On the women's side there are no age restrictions and the participating countries are chosen based on the results of the previous year's World Cup with one spot reserved for the host country.

As the world's most popular sport, soccer is welcomed at the Olympics but it isn't followed with as much passion as the World Cup. It is a great way to spread the Olympic Games experience across the venues of the host nation though and, despite not being as popular as the World Cup, soccer is still one of the most followed sports at the Olympics.