Olympic Football

16 mens' and 12 womens' teams compete for the top spot!

Matches take place across the country at City of Coventry Stadium, (Coventry); Hampden Park (Glasgow); Millennium Stadium (Cardiff); Old Trafford (Manchester); St James' Park (Newcastle); Wembley Stadium (London). Both the mens' and the womens' finals will be held at the Wembley Stadium.

Of all the sports in the Olympic Games, football is probably the one that most of the public have at least tried to engage in at some point or another. Football dates back several centuries and was reportedly played in ancient China and Greece. Although at this time the football was not in its current form and only a few parallels to the current game existed.

Football as we know it today was developed in the 15th and 16th century despite the efforts of the English monarchy to ban the game for being dangerous and violent. Although the game didn’t gain the approval of the monarchy for some time, in 1863 the Football Association of England was created and the game became widely considered mainstream.

The game began in England, although as English sailors travelled throughout the world they spread the game and it soon became internationally popular. Played on a large grass playing field, there are two teams of 11 players with each team aiming to get the football into the back of the net that is protected by the other team. Each match is played in two halves of 45 minutes.

Football was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1896 and became a medal sport in 1908. Since then the country that has won the most medals in football is Hungary, and Great Britain won the first ever gold in this sport in 1908.