France will host the football competition of the 2024 Summer Olympics from July 24 to August 10, 2024. On March 20, 2024, the draw was held in Paris. Apart from Paris, which is the host city for the Olympics, other locations for the matches are Bordeaux, Décines-Charpieu, Marseille, Nice, Nantes, and Saint-Étienne.
Men's and women's tournaments are the two events that are planned to be contested. FIFA-affiliated associations can enter teams in the competition. While women's teams are not age-restricted, men's teams are limited to under-23 players with a maximum of three overage players accepted.
Football Olympics History
Football was initially placed on the Olympic program at the Games of the Second Olympiad (Paris 1900) and has been competed at every edition afterward, except the Los Angeles 1932 Games to promote the new men's FIFA World Cup event.
In 1996, women's football made its appearance at the Olympics during the Atlanta Games. Numerous times, especially in Atlanta 1996, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, and London 2012, the United States has been first on the platform. Canada is the current Olympic champion, winning gold in Tokyo 2020, while Germany won gold in Rio 2016.
Before Spain became the previous European team to win a gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Europe took over the men's division. African and Latin American teams have secured every gold medal since the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, with Brazil making a successful Olympic comeback in Tokyo 2020.
Football Olympics Rules
Football Olympics Competitions Rules are:
- On a grass surface, two teams of eleven players compete in a ninety-minute match divided into two 45-minute portions.
- If a player on the squad is hurt during the competition, each side may also have a roster of four backup players.
- Players on each side must be exclusively born on or after January 1, 2001.
- But three football players who are older than the age restriction and were born before the specified date may be added to the team.
- There is only one team from each region in any group.
Football is one of the few sports at the Games where the competition begins before the opening ceremony because of the massive number of matches. Since the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, the football competition has begun two days before the official opening of the Games.
Football Olympics Teams
Several football players are scheduled to participate in the Olympics in Paris.
Here are the groups for the Olympics:
Women’s
- Group A: Canada, Colombia, France, New Zealand
- Group B: Australia, USA, Germany, Zambia
- Group C: Brazil, Spain, Nigeria, Japan
Men’s
- Group A: France, Guinea, New Zealand, USA
- Group B: Argentina, Iraq, Morocco, Ukraine
- Group C: Egypt, Uzbekistan, Spain, Dominican Republic
- Group D: Israel, Japan, Mali, Paraguay
Icon of France and Arsenal Former Barcelona and Liverpool star Javier Mascherano is the Argentina national team's trainer; Thierry Henry is in charge of the local team.
Warren Zaire-Emery and Bradley Barcola, two of PSG's rising stars, will also be playing alongside Michael Olise, who is expected to sign with Bayern Munich.
Emma Hayes’ USA team will have Emily Fox from Arsenal and Catarina Macario from Chelsea, but not the legendary Alex Morgan of women’s football.