Football at the 1900 Summer Olympics

The 1900 football (soccer) tournament can hardly be called that. Only two matches were played, one between France and Belgium and one between France and Great Britain. Originally, four matches were scheduled, all involving the French team. The matches were to have been played as follows: 20 September (Thursday): France vs. Switzerland; 23 September (Sunday): France vs. Belgium; 30 September (Sunday): France vs. Germany; and 7 October (Sunday): France vs. Great Britain. However, neither the German nor the Swiss football team came to Paris.

Thus, one must question the “tournament” nature of the 1900 football event. It appears that what was scheduled was a series of exhibitions between the home French side and the other four teams. It is highly unlikely that any sort of true tournament was planned.

At any rate, the British were easily the best of the three teams which competed in 1900 in Paris. They defeated the French quite handily, 4-0, and they did not play again. In that match they were led by J. Nicholas, who scored two goals in the first half and then retired with a sprained ankle.

France also defeated Belgium easily, by 6-2. The Belgium team is listed in many sources as representing the University of Brussels, but the University Archivist denies this and, in fact, the Belgian footballers actually represented many different clubs, as well as the Universities of Liège, Louvain, and Brussels.

FIFA does not usually recognize the 1900 nor the 1904 Olympic football events as Olympic events, considering them to have only been exhibitions.