Football at the 2024 Summer Olympics

The system of the Paris football tournament remained unchanged from Tokyo 2020. In spite of the IOC’s efforts to establish gender equality in participants’ numbers, 16 teams played in the men’s tournament and 12 in the women’s. Therefore, the number of matches was also maintained, with 32 (men) and 26 (women). Five countries played in both tournaments: in addition to host France, these were Spain, the USA, New Zealand, and Japan. Each team, male or female, consisted of 18 players plus four alternate players to replace any player injured during the course of the tournament.

In the women’s tournament, the USA and Brazil had played in every tournament since its début in 1996. Sweden, silver medalist in Tokyo, failed to qualify for the first time after placing third in the group phase of the UEFA Women’s Nations League. Germany returned to the Olympic stage, and reigning World champions Spain qualified for the first time ever for the women’s tournament. Three countries who had previously won Olympic gold, Canada, Germany, and USA, competed. The USA claimed their fifth gold in Paris, having won medals at all but the 2016 Olympics. Brazil continued its losing streak in finals against the United States, with a third silver medal.

In the men’s tournament, the age limit returned to 23, after it was increased to 24 for Tokyo, following the postponement of the Games from 2020 to 2021. For Paris 2024, players born after 1 January 2001 were eligible for selection, again with the addition of three overaged players. For host France, it was their 14th participation, just one less than Italy, who did not qualify for any of the last four Olympics. Other top European teams, like Germany and the Netherlands, also failed to qualify for Paris. On the other hand, two surprise teams represented Europe: Israel, for the first time since joining UEFA in 1991, and Ukraine for the first time since independence.

From Asia, Japan qualified for the eighth consecutive time, while South Korea missed the tournament for the first time since 1984. One of the greatest upsets during the qualification was the elimination of Brazil, gold medalist in Rio and Tokyo. They were eliminated by Paraguay, making only their third Olympic appearance. The USA equaled Italy’s 15 participations. In addition to Ukraine, two other countries made their Olympic football tournament débuts (men’s or women’s) in Paris: Uzbekistan, and the Dominican Republic, who qualified after a penalty shootout against Guatemala in the final qualifier.

Like Japan in 2020, the matches were played at seven venues, with capacities between 35.000, in Nantes, to 67.000, in Marseille. The cities were fairly evenly distributed around France, with Marseille, Décines-Charpieu (near Lyon), Bordeaux, Saint-Étienne, Nice, Nantes, and Paris, where both finals were staged.

Top scorer in the men’s tournament was one of Morocco’s overaged players, Soufiane Rahimi, from the El Ain in Abu Dhabi club. Four of his eight goals were converted penalties. Despite five goals from the women’s top scorer, France’s Marie-Antoinette Katoto, they did not even reach the semi-final, as France scored all of their six goals in the group stage.