Football at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's qualification

Eight teams competed in the women's football tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics. In addition to the host nation, the United States, seven other teams qualified for the tournament based on the results from the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Method

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Unlike the men's competition, there was no fixed slot allocation for the women's tournament. Instead, the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup would be used as the preliminary competition to qualify teams for the inaugural women's Olympic football tournament, which featured eight teams. The United States automatically qualified for the tournament as hosts, leaving seven spots to be determined by the Women's World Cup. Teams were ranked based on their results in the tournament, with the top seven teams in the ranking qualifying for the Olympics (excluding the United States and England, a non-IOC member).[1][2]

1995 FIFA Women's World Cup

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Qualification

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Twelve teams qualified for the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup in Sweden based on a fixed slot allocation.

Confederation Slots Tournament Teams qualified
AFC (Asia) 2 Football at the 1994 Asian Games – Women's tournament   China
  Japan
CAF (Africa) 1 1995 African Women's Championship   Nigeria
CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean) 2 1994 CONCACAF Women's Championship   Canada
  United States
CONMEBOL (South America) 1 1995 South American Women's Football Championship   Brazil
OFC (Oceania) 1 1994 OFC Women's Championship   Australia
UEFA (Europe) 5 Host country   Sweden
UEFA Women's Euro 1995   Denmark
  England
  Germany
  Norway

Group stage

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Group A Group B Group C
Pos Team Pld Pts
1   Germany 3 6
2   Sweden (H) 3 6
3   Japan 3 3
4   Brazil 3 3
Source: FIFA
(H) Hosts
Pos Team Pld Pts
1   Norway 3 9
2   England 3 6
3   Canada 3 1
4   Nigeria 3 1
Source: FIFA
Pos Team Pld Pts
1   United States 3 7
2   China 3 7
3   Denmark 3 3
4   Australia 3 0
Source: FIFA

Ranking of third-placed teams

Pos Team Pld Pts
1   Denmark 3 3
2   Japan 3 3
3   Canada 3 1
Source: FIFA

Knockout stage

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Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
 
          
 
13 June – Västerås
 
 
  Germany3
 
15 June – Helsingborg
 
  England0
 
  Germany1
 
13 June – Helsingborg
 
  China0
 
  Sweden1 (3)
 
18 June – Solna
 
  China (p)1 (4)
 
  Germany0
 
13 June – Gävle
 
  Norway2
 
  Japan0
 
15 June – Västerås
 
  United States4
 
  United States0
 
13 June – Karlstad
 
  Norway1 Third place play-off
 
  Norway3
 
17 June – Gävle
 
  Denmark1
 
  China0
 
 
  United States2
 

Ranking of teams

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Teams were ranked by the round/place which they reached, and then by points, goal difference and goals scored. Teams eliminated in the quarter-finals are ranked by their quarter-final goal differential. Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Pos Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 B   Norway 6 6 0 0 23 1 +22 18 Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics
2 A   Germany 6 4 0 2 13 6 +7 12
3 C   United States 6 4 1 1 15 5 +10 13 Automatically qualified (host)
4 C   China 6 2 2 2 11 10 +1 8 Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics
5 A   Sweden 4 2 1 1 6 4 +2 7
6 C   Denmark 4 1 0 3 7 8 −1 3
7 B   England 4 2 0 2 6 9 −3 6 Ineligible (not an IOC member)
8 A   Japan 4 1 0 3 2 8 −6 3 Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics
9 A   Brazil 3 1 0 2 3 8 −5 3
10 B   Canada 3 0 1 2 5 13 −8 1
11 B   Nigeria 3 0 1 2 5 14 −9 1
12 C   Australia 3 0 0 3 3 13 −10 0
Source: FIFA Technical Report[3]

Qualified teams

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Team Confederation Qualified as Qualified on
  United States CONCACAF Host 18 September 1993[4]
  Norway UEFA Women's World Cup winner 9 June 1995
  Germany UEFA Women's World Cup runner-up 9 June 1995
  China AFC Women's World Cup fourth-place 9 June 1995
  Sweden UEFA Women's World Cup fifth-place 9 June 1995
  Denmark UEFA Women's World Cup sixth-place 10 June 1995
  Japan AFC Women's World Cup eighth-place 10 June 1995
  Brazil CONMEBOL Women's World Cup ninth-place 10 June 1995

Breakdown by confederation

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No teams from Africa (CAF) or Oceania (OFC) managed to qualify for the Olympic tournament.

Confederation Teams qualified
AFC 2
CAF 0
CONCACAF 1
CONMEBOL 1
OFC 0
UEFA 4

References

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  1. ^ "Regulations of the Olympic Football Tournament – Games of the XXVIth Olympiad, Atlanta 1996". FIFA. Archived from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  2. ^ "The Olympic eight". Soccer America. 11 June 1995. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  3. ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup 1995 – Technical Report, Part 1: Table" (PDF). FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. p. 14 (15 of PDF). Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  4. ^ "Women Sports Get a Boost". The New York Times. 20 September 1993. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
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