Football at the 2016 Summer Olympics

The association football tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics was held from 3 to 20 August in Brazil.

In addition to the Olympic host city of Rio de Janeiro, matches were played in Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Salvador, São Paulo, and Manaus. All six cities hosted matches during the 2014 World Cup, with the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange in Rio de Janeiro the only Olympic venue not to have been a World Cup venue.

Associations affiliated with FIFA might send teams to participate in the tournament. Men's teams were restricted to under-23 players (born on or after 1 January 1993) with a maximum of three overage players allowed, while there were no age restrictions on women's teams. The Games made use of about 400 footballs.

Competition schedule
The match schedule of the men's and women's tournament was unveiled on 10 November 2015.

Venues
Rio de Janeiro hosted preliminary matches at the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange and the women's and men's final at the Maracanã Stadium on 19 and 20 August. Apart from Rio de Janeiro the five other cities were: São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Salvador, and Manaus, which were all host cities during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The final choice of venues was announced by FIFA on 16 March 2015.

Men's qualification
In addition to host nation Brazil, 15 men's national teams qualified from six separate continental confederations. FIFA ratified the distribution of spots at the Executive Committee meeting in March 2014.


 * Dates and venues are those of final tournaments (or final round of qualification tournaments), various qualification stages may precede matches at these specific venues.
 * Nations making their Olympic tournament debut
 * One match each in Colombia and United States in a two-legged tie.

Women's qualification
In addition to host nation Brazil, 11 women's national teams qualified from six separate continental confederations. FIFA ratified the distribution of spots at the Executive Committee meeting in March 2014. Most continents use specific Olympic qualifying tournaments to allocate their spots, but two use slightly different procedures.

CONMEBOL used the 2014 Copa América Femenina as a qualifier for both the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup and the Olympic tournament and, as Brazil was on the Olympics host country condition,they automatically qualified for the tournament and therefore the South American spot was given to second place in the tournament,Colombia.

UEFA used the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup to determine its Olympic qualification.The top 3 european finishers at the World Cup, excluding England, qualified. When multiple European teams was eliminated on the same round,this results were a used as tie for the Olympic qualifying spots,and had the necessity to held an Olympic Qualifying Tournament to give the last spot. As Germany and France both reached at least the quarterfinals and thus obtained qualification spots (England also did so, but was ineligible for the Olympic Games). The next best finishes for the European teams were a four-way tie among 4 teams: Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, eliminated in the round of 16. With this unproceded situation, a round robin tournament to decide who would take the last spot for the Olympic Games was held and was won by Sweden.


 * Dates and venues are those of final tournaments (or final round of qualification tournaments), various qualification stages may precede matches at these specific venues.
 * England finished in the top three among UEFA teams in the World Cup, however England is not an IOC member and talks for them to compete as Great Britain broke down.
 * Nations making their Olympic tournament debut

Men's competition


The competition consisted of two stages; a group stage followed by a knockout stage.

Group stage
Teams were divided into four groups of four countries, playing each team in their group once. Three points were awarded for a victory, one for a draw. The top two teams per group qualified for the quarterfinals.

Women's competition
The competition consisted of two stages; a group stage followed by a knockout stage.

Group stage
Teams were divided into three groups of four countries, playing each team in their group once. Three points were awarded for a victory, one for a draw. The top two teams per group and best two third-placed teams qualified for the quarterfinals.