Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Tournament details
Host country	United Kingdom
Dates	25 July – 11 August
Teams	16 (men) + 12 (women) (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	6 (in 6 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Mexico (men) United States (women)
Runners-up	Brazil (men) Japan (women)
Third place	South Korea (men) Canada (women)
Fourth place	Japan (men) France (women)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	58
Goals scored	146 (2.52 per match)
Attendance	2,186,150 (37,692 per match)

Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Tournament
men  women
Squads
men  women

The association football tournament at the 2012 Summer Olympics was held from 25 July to 11 August, and was the only sport to begin before the official opening day of the Olympic Games, two days before the opening ceremony. It was also the only sport to be held at multiple venues outside London (the host city of the Olympics), with Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle, Coventry and Cardiff all hosting matches. The finals were played at Wembley Stadium. Associations affiliated with FIFA were invited to send their senior women's and men's under-23 national teams to participate; men's teams were allowed to augment their squads with three players over the age of 23. 504 football players competed for two sets of gold medals.

For these games, the men competed in a 16-team tournament and the women in a 12-team tournament. The draw for the tournament took place on 24 April 2012.

Venues

There are six stadiums that hosted matches: The stadiums represent London itself and South East England, the English Midlands, North West England and North East England in England, as well as Scotland and Wales.

London	Wembley Stadium Old Trafford Millennium Stadium St. James' Park Hampden Park Ricoh Arena Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics (the United Kingdom)		Manchester
Wembley Stadium			Old Trafford
Capacity: 90,000			Capacity: 76,212
Cardiff			Newcastle
Millennium Stadium			St. James' Park
Capacity: 74,500			Capacity: 52,387
Glasgow			Coventry
Hampden Park			Ricoh Arena
Capacity: 52,103			Capacity: 32,500

NOTE: Ricoh Arena was known as the City of Coventry Stadium due to the no-commercialization policy.

Competition schedule

P

Preliminaries

¼

Quarterfinals

½

Semifinals

B

3rd place play-off

F

Final

Event↓/Date →	Wed 25	Thu 26	Fri 27	Sat 28	Sun 29	Mon 30	Tue 31	Wed 1	Thu 2	Fri 3	Sat 4	Sun 5	Mon 6	Tue 7	Wed 8	Thu 9		Fri 10	Sat 11
Men		P			P			P			¼			½				B	F
Women	P			P			P			¼			½			B	F

Qualified nations

Men's tournament

Main article: Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification

Means of qualification	Date of completion	Venue	Berths	Qualified	Senior team FIFA Ranking
Host nation		–	1	Great Britain	4
AFC Preliminary Competition	29 March 2012	Various (home and away)	3	South Korea Japan United Arab Emirates	28 20 87
CAF Preliminary Competition	10 December 2011	Morocco	3	Gabon Morocco Egypt	45 71 42
CONCACAF Preliminary Competition	2 April 2012	United States	2	Mexico Honduras	19 63
CONMEBOL Preliminary Competition	12 February 2011	Peru	2	Brazil Uruguay	11 3
OFC Preliminary Competition	25 March 2012	New Zealand	1	New Zealand	95
UEFA Preliminary Competition	25 June 2011	Denmark	3	Spain Switzerland Belarus	1 21 77
AFC–CAF play-off	23 April 2012	Great Britain	1	Senegal	61
Total			16

• ^1 Locations are those of final tournaments, various qualification stages may precede matches at these specific venues.
• ^2 Senior ranking shown for comparison only. This is an under-23 competition, which does not award ranking points for the FIFA World Rankings, neither takes it into consideration.
• ^3 England's ranking.

Women's tournament

Means of qualification	Date of completion	Venue	Berths	Qualified	FIFA Ranking
Host nation		–	1	Great Britain	9
AFC Preliminary Competition	11 September 2011	China	2	Japan North Korea	3 8
CAF Preliminary Competition	22 October 2011	–	2	South Africa Cameroon	61 50
CONCACAF Preliminary Competition	29 January 2012	Canada	2	United States Canada	1 7
CONMEBOL Preliminary Competition	21 November 2010	Ecuador	2	Brazil Colombia	5 28
OFC Preliminary Competition	4 April 2012	–	1	New Zealand	23
(UEFA) 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup	17 July 2011	Germany	2	Sweden France	4 6
Total			12

• ^1 Locations are those of final tournaments, various qualification stages may precede matches at these specific venues.
• ^2 England's ranking.

United Kingdom/Great Britain teams

Main articles: United Kingdom national football team and Great Britain Olympic football team

A men's football team representing Great Britain competed in the Olympics until 1972, albeit failing to qualify for the main tournament after 1960. Great Britain did not enter a football team in the Olympics for the rest of the 1970s, plus the entire 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

On 24 August 2008, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggested that the presence of a GB team at the 2012 games was "vital". He said that he had approached Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson to coach such a team. The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish football associations opposed such a move in case it would affect their status within the governing body of football, FIFA.

On 29 May 2009, after last-ditch talks prompted by a FIFA deadline to settle the row, the four associations sent a letter to FIFA stating that while the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish associations would not participate in a unified UK men's or women's teams at the Olympic Games, they would not prevent England from fielding teams under that banner.

However, Britain's FIFA Vice-President Jim Boyce stated that Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Craig Bellamy, Charlie Adam and other non-English players would have the legal right to be considered for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics. The deal among the four "home nations" was challenged by the British Olympic Association. Boyce said there was no legal restriction as to why a player from Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland could be stopped from playing.

Ultimately, five Welsh players were included in the 2012 Great Britain Olympic football squad, with Ryan Giggs – included as one of the three players over the age of 23 permitted – selected as team captain. Giggs would score during the tournament, in a 3–1 defeat of the United Arab Emirates at Wembley. None of the Great Britain men's football squad came from Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Tie breakers

This tournament differs from other modern major international football tournaments, in that head-to-head records is not the primary way to break ties.

The ranking of the teams in each group shall be determined as follows:

1. greatest number of points obtained in all group matches;
2. goal difference in all group matches;
3. greatest number of goals scored in all group matches;
4. greatest number of points obtained in all group matches between the teams concerned;
5. goal difference resulting from all group matches between the teams concerned;
6. greatest number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned;
7. drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee.

Medal summary

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Mexico	1	0	0	1
	United States	1	0	0	1
3	Brazil	0	1	0	1
	Japan	0	1	0	1
5	Canada	0	0	1	1
	South Korea	0	0	1	1
Total		2	2	2	6

Medalists

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men	Mexico (MEX) José Corona (captain) Israel Jiménez Carlos Salcido Hiram Mier Dárvin Chávez Héctor Herrera Javier Cortés Marco Fabián Oribe Peralta Giovani dos Santos Javier Aquino Raúl Jiménez Diego Reyes Jorge Enríquez Néstor Vidrio Miguel Ponce Néstor Araujo José Antonio Rodríguez	Brazil (BRA) Gabriel Rafael Thiago Silva (captain) Juan Jesus Sandro Marcelo Lucas Rômulo Leandro Damião Oscar Neymar Hulk Bruno Uvini Danilo Alex Sandro Ganso Alexandre Pato Neto	South Korea (KOR) Jung Sung-Ryong Oh Jae-Suk Yun Suk-Young Kim Young-Gwon Kim Kee-Hee Ki Sung-Yueng Kim Bo-Kyung Baek Sung-Dong Ji Dong-Won Park Chu-Young Nam Tae-Hee Hwang Seok-Ho Koo Ja-Cheol (captain) Kim Chang-Soo Park Jong-Woo Jung Woo-Young Kim Hyun-Sung Lee Beom-Young
Women	United States (USA) Hope Solo Heather Mitts Christie Rampone (captain) Becky Sauerbrunn Kelley O'Hara Amy LePeilbet Shannon Boxx Amy Rodriguez Heather O'Reilly Carli Lloyd Sydney Leroux Lauren Cheney Alex Morgan Abby Wambach Megan Rapinoe Rachel Buehler Tobin Heath Nicole Barnhart	Japan (JPN) Miho Fukumoto Yukari Kinga Azusa Iwashimizu Saki Kumagai Aya Sameshima Mizuho Sakaguchi Kozue Ando Aya Miyama (captain) Nahomi Kawasumi Homare Sawa Shinobu Ohno Kyoko Yano Karina Maruyama Asuna Tanaka Megumi Takase Mana Iwabuchi Yūki Ōgimi Ayumi Kaihori	Canada (CAN) Karina LeBlanc Chelsea Stewart Carmelina Moscato Robyn Gayle Kaylyn Kyle Rhian Wilkinson Diana Matheson Candace Chapman Lauren Sesselmann Desiree Scott Christine Sinclair (captain) Sophie Schmidt Melissa Tancredi Kelly Parker Jonelle Filigno Brittany Timko Erin McLeod Marie-Ève Nault

Men's tournament

Main article: Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Great Britain Senegal United Arab Emirates Uruguay	Mexico South Korea Gabon Switzerland	Brazil Egypt Belarus New Zealand	Spain Japan Honduras Morocco

Squad restrictions

The same restrictions used for recent Olympiads are applied, in which each squad is to consist of eighteen players, of which no more than three may be over the age of 23 before the beginning of the next year. In the case of the 2012 Summer Olympics, this restricts players born before 1 January 1989.

Women's tournament

Main article: Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament

Group E	Group F	Group G
Great Britain New Zealand Cameroon Brazil	Japan Canada Sweden South Africa	United States France Colombia North Korea

Squad restrictions

There were no age restrictions in the women's tournament.

Controversies

South Korean political statements

After South Korea defeated Japan in the Bronze Medal match at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on 10 August, South Korean player Park Jong-Woo walked around the field holding a banner with a message written in Korean, "독도는 우리 땅!" (dokdo neun uri ttang lit. "Dokdo is our territory!). As both IOC and FIFA statutes prohibit any political statements being made by athletes at their respective sporting events, the IOC barred Park from the bronze medal ceremony and did not permit him to receive his medal. In addition, it asked FIFA to discipline Park, and stated that it may decide on further sanctions at a later date. FIFA failed to reach a conclusion on the case at a meeting at its Zurich headquarters held on 5 October, and the disciplinary committee discussed the case again on the following week, then failed to reach a verdict again. The case was heard again by the committee on 20 November, and FIFA decided on 3 December to suspend Park for two matches after he was considered to have breached the FIFA Disciplinary Code and the Regulations of the Olympic Football Tournaments. FIFA also imposed a warning on the Korea Football Association and reminded it of its obligation to properly instruct its players on all the pertinent rules and applicable regulations before the start of any competition, in order to avoid such incident in the future. The Korea Football Association was warned that should incidents of such nature occur again in the future, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee may impose harsher sanctions on the Korea Football Association.

Iranian women's team dress code violations

Iran's women's team and three Jordanian players were banned at the second round of the Asian qualification tournament due to not adhering to FIFA dress code; the players were allowed to play while covering their head in the first round. FIFA banned the hijab in 2007, although FIFA now allows the hijab to be worn after overturning the 2007 decision in 2012.

Use of incorrect Korean flag

Following the South Korean flag being put on display on the stadium screen at Hampden Park when the teams were being announced before the Colombia versus North Korea women's match, the North Korea team protested against this action by refusing to take to the pitch. As a result of the wrong flag being displayed, the kick-off was delayed.

Canada–USA semi-final controversial refereeing decisions

During the semifinal match between Canada and United States, a controversial delay of game call was made against the Canadian goalkeeper, Erin McLeod, when she held the ball longer than the allowed six seconds. This violation is rarely called in international play, and is only intended to be used during instances of clear and deliberate time-wasting. As a result, the American side was awarded a rare indirect free-kick in the box, in the eightieth minute, with Canada leading the match 3–2. On the ensuing play, another controversial handball call was made against the Canadian side, awarding the American team a penalty kick, which Abby Wambach converted to tie the game at 3–3. The Americans went on to win the match in extra time, advancing to the gold medal match. After the match, Canada forward Christine Sinclair stated, "the ref decided the result before the game started." FIFA responded by saying it was considering disciplinary action against Sinclair, but that any disciplinary action would be postponed until after the end of the tournament. Sinclair was eventually suspended for four games for her conduct. The referee for the match, Christina Pedersen, was not chosen to officiate for the bronze or gold medal, nor any major international competition since then.

See also

• Football 5-a-side at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
• Football 7-a-side at the 2012 Summer Paralympics

External links

• Official website