Football at the 2020 Summer Olympics

The association football tournament at the 2020 Summer Olympics were to be held from 22 July to 8 August 2020 in Japan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games have been postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021. However, their official name remains 2020 Summer Olympics.[1]

Football at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Tournament details
Host country	Japan
Dates	21 July 2021 - 7 August 2021
Teams	16 (men) + 12 (women) (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	7 (in 6 host cities)

In addition to the Olympic host city of Tokyo, matches will also be played in Kashima, Saitama, Sapporo, Sendai, and Yokohama.[2]

Associations affiliated with FIFA may send teams to participate in the tournament. There are no age restrictions on women's teams, while men's teams are restricted to under-24 players (born on or after 1 January 1997) with a maximum of three overage players allowed.[3] The men's tournament is typically restricted to under-23 players, though following the postponement of the Olympics by a year, FIFA decided to maintain the restriction of players born on or after 1 January 1997.[4] In June 2020, FIFA approved the use of the video assistant referee (VAR) system at the Olympics.[5]

Brazil are the men's defending champions. Germany are the women's defending champions, but failed to qualify after losing to Sweden in the quarterfinals of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Competition schedule

Legend

G

Group stage

¼

Quarter-finals

½

Semi-finals

B

Bronze medal match

F

Gold medal match

Date Event	21 Wed	22 Thu	23 Fri	24 Sat	25 Sun	26 Mon	27 Tue	28 Wed	29 Thu	30 Fri	31 Sat	1 Sun	2 Mon	3 Tue	4 Wed	5 Thu	6 Fri	7 Sat
Men		G			G			G			¼			½			B	F
Women	G			G			G			¼			½			B	F

Venues

A total of seven venues will be used:[2]

Tokyo	Chōfu	Saitama	Yokohama
National Stadium	Tokyo Stadium	Saitama Stadium	Int. Stadium Yokohama
Capacity: 60,102	Capacity: 48,000	Capacity: 62,000	Capacity: 70,000
Kashima	Yokohama Saitama Sendai Tokyo Kashima Sapporo
Ibaraki Kashima Stadium[6]
Capacity: 42,000
Rifu
Miyagi Stadium
Capacity: 48,000
Sapporo
Sapporo Dome
Capacity: 42,000

Qualification

The Organising Committee for FIFA Competitions ratified the distribution of spots at their meeting on 14 September 2017.[7]

Men's qualification .

In addition to host nation Japan, 15 men's national teams will qualify from six separate continental confederations.[7]

Means of qualification	Ref.	Dates^1	Venue^1	Berths	Qualified
Host country	[8]	7 September 2013	N/A	1	Japan
2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship	[9]	16–30 June 2019	Italy  San Marino	4	France  Germany  Romania  Spain
2019 OFC Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament	[10]	21 September – 5 October 2019	Fiji	1	New Zealand
2019 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations	[11]	8–22 November 2019	Egypt	3	Egypt  Ivory Coast  South Africa
2020 AFC U-23 Championship	[12]	8–26 January 2020	Thailand	3	Australia  Saudi Arabia  South Korea
2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament	[13]	18 January – 9 February 2020	Colombia	2	Argentina  Brazil
2020 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship	[14]	18–30 March 2021	Mexico	2
Total				16

• ^1 Dates and venues are those of final tournaments (or final round of qualification tournaments), various qualification stages may precede matches at these specific venues.

Women's qualification

In addition to the host nation Japan, 11 women's national teams will qualify from six separate continental confederations.[7]

For the first time, as per an agreement between the four British football associations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales), Great Britain qualified for the Olympics through England's performance in the World Cup (a procedure already successfully employed by Team GB in field hockey and rugby sevens). Scotland also participated in the World Cup but, under the agreement whereby the highest ranked home nation is nominated to compete for the purposes of Olympic qualification, their performance was not taken into account.[15][16]

Means of qualification	Ref.	Dates^2	Venue^2	Berths	Qualified
Host country		7 September 2013	N/A	1	Japan
2018 Copa América	[17]	4–22 April 2018	Chile	1	Brazil
2018 OFC Nations Cup	[18]	18 November – 1 December 2018	New Caledonia	1	New Zealand
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup (as UEFA qualifying)	[19]	7 June – 7 July 2019	France	3	Great Britain  Netherlands  Sweden
2020 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship	[20]	28 January – 9 February 2020	United States	2	Canada  United States
2020 CAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament	[21]	5–10 March 2020	Various	1	Zambia
2020 AFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament	[22]	6–11 March 2020 & 8–13 April 2021	Various	2	Australia TBD
CAF–CONMEBOL play-off		April 2021	Various	1	TBD
Total				12

• ^2 Dates and venues are those of final tournaments (or final round of qualification tournaments), various qualification stages may precede matches at these specific venues.

Men's competition

The competition consists of two stages; a group stage followed by a knockout stage. The 16 teams will be drawn into four groups of four teams. The hosts Japan are automatically seeded into Pot 1 and assigned to position A1, while the remaining teams are seeded into their respective pots based on their results in the last five Olympics (more recent tournaments weighted more heavily), with bonus points awarded to confederation champions. No group can contain more than one team from each confederation.[23]

Women's competition

The competition consists of two stages; a group stage followed by a knockout stage. The 12 teams will be drawn into three groups of four teams. The hosts Japan are automatically seeded into Pot 1 and assigned to position E1, while the remaining teams are seeded into their respective pots based on their FIFA Women's World Rankings in March 2020. No group can contain more than one team from each confederation.[23][24]

Final Draw

The draws for the Olympic football Tournaments will take place on 8 April 2021 at JFA Football Museum in Tokyo, Japan.

See also

• Football at the 2018 Asian Games
• Football at the 2019 African Games
• Football at the 2019 Pan American Games
• Football 5-a-side at the 2020 Summer Paralympics

Note

References

1. McCurry, Justin; Ingle, Sean (24 March 2020). "Tokyo Olympics postponed to 2021 due to coronavirus pandemic". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 March 2020.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
2. "Olympic sport football". tokyo2020.jp. 21 November 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
3. "Regulations for the Olympic Football Tournaments Tokyo 2020" (PDF). FIFA.com.
4. "Dedicated COVID-19 working group proposes recommendations after first meeting". FIFA. 3 April 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
5. "FIFA Council unanimously approves COVID-19 Relief Plan". FIFA. 25 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
6. "Olympic Sports : Football". The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
7. "OC for FIFA Competitions approves procedures for the Final Draw of the 2018 FIFA World Cup". FIFA.com. 14 September 2017.
8. FIFA.com. "Olympic Football Tournaments 2020 - Men - News - The road to Tokyo - FIFA.com". www.fifa.com. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
9. "Under-21 EURO 2019: all you need to know". uefa.com. 16 October 2018.
10. "Olympic Qualifier Draw complete". Oceania Football Confederation. 7 May 2019.
11. "CAF confirms 2019 Total U-23 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt will be played in November". Ghana Soccernet. 29 September 2018.
12. "FA Thailand proposed as 2020 AFC U-23 Championship host". AFC. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
13. "Colombia será sede del Campeonato Sudamericano Preolímpico Sub-23 del 2020". conmebol.com. 14 August 2018.
14. "Concacaf confirms Guadalajara to host Men's Olympic Qualifiers in March 2021". CONCACAF. 14 January 2021.
15. "Organising Committee takes important decisions on FIFA Women's World Cup". FIFA.com. 1 October 2018.
16. "Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Home nations agree to GB women's football team". BBC Sport. 1 October 2018. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
17. "La Copa América Femenina se celebrará del 4 al 22 de abril". CONMEBOL.com. 21 July 2017.
18. "OFC Women's Nations Cup confirmed". Oceania Football Confederation. 12 March 2018.
19. "FIFA Women's World Cup fixtures/results". UEFA.com. 16 June 2019.
20. "United States Set to Host 2020 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament". CONCACAF. Miami. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
21. "Tokyo 2020: Sierra Leone disqualified, Angola withdraws". CAF. 5 March 2019.
22. "Asia's elite set to vie for two Tokyo 2020 tickets". Asian Football Confederation. 2 August 2018. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
23. "Draw Procedures – Olympic Football Tournaments Tokyo 2020" (PDF). FIFA.com.
24. "Tokyo Olympics 2020: North Korea Withdraws Women's Football Qualifiers in South Korea | Olympics 2020". Retrieved 3 January 2020.

External links

• Tokyo 2020
• Olympic Football Tournaments Tokyo 2020 - Men, FIFA.com
• Olympic Football Tournaments Tokyo 2020 - Women, FIFA.com