The Olympic men’s and women’s football tournaments are major events in the world of international football.
- Olympic football schedule and draw explained: How the format works for Paris 2024
- Are there differences in the rules of Olympic football? How groups and qualifications work
- What happens in the event of a tie in Olympic football matches?
- How many teams qualified for the Paris Olympics football tournaments?
- How is football different from the Olympic Games and the World Cup?
- How does each nation qualify for Olympic football?
While the events do not have the same level of prestige as the FIFA World Cup or European Championships, the chance to win a gold medal for your country is something that many players long to receive.
At the Paris 2024 Games, the United States will compete in the men’s and women’s events alongside traditional soccer powerhouses Spain, Brazil, Argentina and host country France. We’re sure to be in for an exciting two weeks of action once the group stage gets underway on July 24.
So how does the schedule work? What is the format of the group stage and knockout rounds? Read on for the details.
Olympic football schedule and draw explained: How the format works for Paris 2024
Classification and group stage
Nations must earn their place in the Olympic football tournament by competing in regional qualifying events. Each regional federation decides its own qualification process.
There is 16 teams in the men’s tournamentand 12 teams in the women’s categoryRepresentatives from six different football federations take part in each competition. As the host country, France automatically qualified for both events.
The qualified teams were pided into groups by a random draw. There are four groups of four nations in the men’s tournament and three groups of four in the women’s tournament. The group stage is a round-robin format in which each team plays the other team in its group once. Teams earn three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss.
In both competitions, the top two teams in each group after the first three rounds of matches advance to the knockout stage, which begins with the quarter-finals. In the women’s competition, the two best third-placed teams from the group stage also advance to the next round.
Knockout stage
The knockout phase includes quarter-finals, semi-finals and two medal matches. The losers of the semi-finals compete for the bronze medal, while the winners meet in the final, where the winners win gold and the losers take silver.
These are knockout matches. If necessary, extra time and penalty shoot-outs will be used to determine the winners.
While the basic format is simple, each Olympic tournament has unique characteristics that set it apart from other international competitions.
Are there differences in the rules of Olympic football? How groups and qualifications work
FIFA, the world governing body for football, oversees the men’s and women’s competitions at the Olympic Games, closely aligning the Laws of the Game and tournament formats with the World Cup and other international events.
In the group stage of the Olympic Games, teams get three points for a win, one point for a draw and none for a loss. To break ties between teams with equal points in the round-robin group stage, the following criteria are used in order:
- Goal difference in all group matches (goals scored minus goals conceded);
- Total goals scored in all group matches;
- Points obtained in matches between tied teams;
- Goal difference in matches between tied teams;
- Goals scored in matches between tied teams;
- Fair play points based on yellow and red cards received in all group matches;
- Raffle of lots.
Eight teams advance from the group stage to the knockout rounds. In the men’s tournament, it is the top two teams from each group; in the women’s tournament, it is the top two from each group plus the two third-placed countries with the best records.
What happens in the event of a tie in Olympic football matches?
During the group stage, in the event of a tie after 90 minutes, one point will be awarded to each team.
In the knockout rounds, if a match is still tied after regulation time, which consists of 90 minutes, an additional 30 minutes of extra time (two periods of 15 minutes each) will be played. If the score is still tied after extra time, the winner will be determined by a penalty shoot-out.
The exception will be the bronze medal match, which will go straight to a penalty shoot-out if the score is still tied after regulation time.
How many teams qualified for the Paris Olympics football tournaments?
For the 2024 Games, the men’s and women’s tournaments start with a different number of participating teams:
- Men: 16 teams
- Women: 12 teams
Men’s football has been a near-constant discipline at almost every Summer Olympics, while the women’s event only began in 1996 for the Atlanta Games.
Initially, the women’s competition began with eight teams. In 2000, it was expanded to ten teams and at the 2008 Beijing Games it had twelve. Given the worldwide boom in women’s football, there are growing expectations that the tournament will be expanded to include sixteen teams.
How is football different from the Olympic Games and the World Cup?
Unlike the FIFA World Cup, which features the best teams and players after global qualifying tournaments involving all national teams, the Olympic Games have a more restricted format. This means that, while prestigious, the Olympic Games do not overshadow the World Cup as a global football event.
The men’s and women’s World Cups feature a larger number of teams, with 32 teams each, and qualifying for the finals is the pinnacle of international football. However, starting with the 2026 World Cup, this number will increase to 48 teams. The smaller number of nations at the Olympics gives it a different feel to a real world championship.
Additionally, for men’s Olympic football, FIFA and the International Olympic Committee impose an age restriction whereby players must be 23 or younger, with the exception of three “over-age” players allowed per team (the age limit was raised to 24 for the Tokyo Olympics due to the delay caused by the pandemic). At the World Cup, eligible professional players of any age can be called up to their national teams.
Clubs are not obliged to release their male players for the Olympic tournament, unlike in competitions organised by FIFA. This is one of the reasons why Lionel Messi will not play at the Paris Games.
In contrast, the women’s Olympic tournament features full senior national teams with no age restrictions, highlighting its parity with other major international competitions.
How does each nation qualify for Olympic football?
Each region has its own methods for deciding which teams qualify for the Olympics. Most regions host specific Olympic qualifying tournaments, often referred to as the U-23 men’s championships.
In Europe, the process is simple: they use the existing European Under-21 Men’s Championship to select the four European teams that will participate in the Olympic Games. In addition, the best European teams from the FIFA Women’s World Cup also get places in the women’s Olympic tournament.
| Region | Men’s Olympic qualifiers | Women’s Olympic qualifiers |
| Africa | 3 (Egypt, Mali, Morocco) | 2 (Nigeria, Zambia) |
| Asia | 3 (Iraq, Japan, Uzbekistan) | 2 (Japan, Australia) |
| Europe | 4 (France (host), Israel, Spain, Ukraine) | 3 (France (host), Spain, Germany) |
| Oceania | 1 (New Zealand) | 1 (New Zealand) |
| South America | 2 (Argentina, Paraguay) | 2 (Brazil, Colombia) |
| North America | 2 (Dominican Republic, United States) | 2 (Canada, United States) |
