The regulations regarding the roster in football at the Olympics have undergone changes from time to time.
Football at the Olympics is set to kick off next week. The men’s football
team at the summer Olympics has gone through plenty of changes in its roster or
squad selection. Such is not without a reason. Football at the Summer Olympics
was once considered the most prestigious tournament in the world prior to the
FIFA World Cup. It was under the IOC and first officially included in the 1900
edition, which was far earlier than the first FIFA World Cup in 1930.
Initially, it was only an exhibition match between Denmark and Greece in the first edition of the modern Olympics in 1896.
FIFA was founded in 1904, and football had already appeared in two summer
Olympics. They became concerned about football's popularity in the IOC's organised sport event in the 1920s. In 1930, the world football governing body proposed the creation of a
new global tournament for professional players, known as the FIFA World Cup.
FIFA had complete control over that brand new competition too, instead of being
under the IOC. There were no restrictions on non-professional players, as in
the Olympics.
At first, the FIFA World Cup was not the big team’s priority, especially
prior to World War II. England, for example, had rejected the chance to compete in the tournament until they made their debut in
Brazil in 1950, the first edition after World War II. FIFA even had to exclude
football from the Los Angeles 1932 summer Olympics to promote the World Cup.
As football gains more popularity around the world, the FIFA World Cup has
been widely renowned as the elite international competition, whereas football
at the Olympics began to lose its prestige. The rule has been changed over time
by FIFA to ensure its level does not exceed the World Cup’s profile. The most
significant one was in 1984, when they finally allowed professional players to
compete at the Olympics. Here are such changes in the team and roster from the
first edition to the modern era.
|
Olympic edition (winner) |
Rules on the team and roster |
Notable players |
|
Athens 1896 |
No specific rule{Football was only an exhibition game between Denmark (mixed team) and Greece (club team)} |
- |
|
Paris 1900 (Great Britain – Upton Park FC) |
Club team / mixed team (consisting of non-professional/amateur
players, students or athletes from other sports). |
- |
|
St.Louis 1904 (Canada – Galt) |
Club team / mixed team (consisting of non-professional/amateur
players, students or athletes from other sports). |
- |
|
London 1908 (Great Britain) |
National team (amateur) |
Sophus Nielsen (the first Denmark national team manager), Harald Bohr (Danish mathematician and the younger brother of famous scientist, Niels Bohr) |
|
Stockholm 1912 (Great Britain) |
National team (amateur) |
Hugo Meisl (Austrian manager who was given a role as a referee), Vivian Woodward (England captain in early 20th century. |
|
Antwerp 1920 (Belgium) |
National team (amateur) |
- |
|
Paris 1924 (Uruguay) |
National team (amateur) |
Pedro Cea, Jose Adrande, Jose Nasazzi (Uruguay world cup winners in
1930) |
|
Amsterdam 1928 (Uruguay) |
National team (amateur) |
- Pedro Cea, Jose Adrande, Jose Nasazzi (Uruguay world cup winners in
1930) - Luis Monti, Raimundo Orsi (Argentina-Italy star in 1930s) - Angelo Schiavio (Italy world cup winner in 1934) |
|
Los Angeles 1932 |
Football was excluded |
- |
|
Berlin 1936 (Italy) |
National team (amateur, including professional players who were
state-sponsored) |
Annibale Frossi (Italy, later known the inventor of Catenaccio tactic
as a manager) |
|
London 1948 (Sweden) |
National team (amateur, including professional players who were
state-sponsored) |
Gunnar Gren, Nils Liedholm, Gunnard Nordahl (Sweden – AC Milan stars in 1950s), John Hansen (Denmark – Juventus stars in 1950s) |
|
Helsinki 1952 (Hungary) |
National team (amateur, including professional players who were
state-sponsored) |
Gyula Gorics, Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Koscis (Hungary) |
|
Melbourne 1956 (USSR) |
National team (amateur, including professional players who were
state-sponsored) |
Lev Yashin, Igor Netto (USSR), Todor Veselinovic (Yugoslavia) |
|
Roma 1960 (Yugoslavia) |
National team (amateurs who were not included in 1958 FIFA World Cup,
professional players who were state-sponsored) |
Milan Galic (Yugoslavia), Gerson (Brasil), Carlos Bilardo
(Argentina), Gianni Rivera (Italy), Florian Albert (Hungary) |
|
Tokyo 1964 (Hungary) |
National team (amateurs who were not included in 1962 FIFA World Cup
qualifiers and final round, except those from Asia and Africa; professional
players who were state-sponsored) |
Ferenc Bene (Hungary), Ivica Osim (Yugoslavia), Vladimir Weiss
(Czechoslovakia – grandfather of former Slovakian international in 2010 FIFA
World Cup, Vladimir Weiss) |
|
Mexico 1968 (Hungary) |
National team (amateur, including professional players who were
state-sponsored) |
- |
|
Munich 1972 (Poland) |
National team (amateur, including professional players who were
state-sponsored) |
Kazimierz Deyna, Gregorz Lato (Poland), Dirceu, Falcao, Roberto
Dinamite (Brasil), Uli Hoenes, Ottmar Hizfield (West Germany), Oleg Blokhin
(USSR) |
|
Montreal 1976 (East Germany) |
National team (amateur, including professional players who were
state-sponsored) |
Kazimierz Deyna, Gregorz Lato, Andrej Szarmach (Poland), Michel
Platini (France), Luis Arconada (Spain), Oleg Blokhin (USSR), Hugo Sanchez
(Mexico) |
|
Moscow 1980 (Czechoslovakia) |
National team (amateur, including professional players who were
state-sponsored, players from Europe and South America who had not played in
1978 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and final round) |
Rinat Dassaev, Oleg Romanstev, Valeri Gazzaev (USSR), Rabah Madjer
(Algeria), Marcos Alonso Pena, Francisco Buyo (Spain) |
|
Los Angeles 1984 (France) |
National team (consisting of professional players with less than five
caps in team A, regardless the age) |
Jacques Songo’o, Roger Milla, Joseph-Antoine Bell (Cameroon), Dragan
Stojkovic (Yugoslavia), Dunga (Brasil), Guido Buchwald, Andreas Brehme (West
Germany), Franco Baresi, Daniele Massaro (Italy) |
|
Seoul 1988 (USSR) |
National team (consisting of professional players with less than five
caps in team A, regardless the age ; players from Europe and South America
who had featured less than 90 minutes in a single game during FIFA World Cup ) |
Dmitry Kharine, Igor Dobrovolski (USSR), Nestor Lorenzo, Luis Islas,
Pedro Monzon (Argentina), Graham Arnold (Australia), Romario, Bebeto, Mazinho,
Taffarel, Jorginho, Andre Cruz (Brasil), Ciro Ferrara, Gianluca Pagliuca
(Italy), Rashidi Yekini, Samson Siasia (Nigeria), Ronald Nilsson, Martin
Dahlin, Andres Limpar, Roger Ljung (Sweden) Tab Ramos (USA), Jurgen Klinsmann,
Thomas Haessler, Karl Heinz Riedl (West Germany), Dragan Stojkovic, Srecko
Katanec, Davor Suker (Yugoslavia) |
|
Barcelona 1992 (Spain) |
U23 National team |
Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Kiko Narvaez, Abelardo, Albert Ferrer,
Alfonso Perez (Spain), Mark Bosnich, Tony Vidmar (Australia), Farid
Mondragon, Faustino Asprilla, Victor Aristizabal (Colombia), Stig Tofting,
Thomas Helveg (Denmark), Dino Baggio, Demitrio Albertini, Angelo Peruzzi
(Italy), Shin Tae Young, Lee Woon-Jae (South Korea), Noureddine Naybet
(Morocco), Carlos Gamarra (Paraguay), Patrik Andersson, Hakan Mild, Tomas
Brolin (Sweden), Alexi Lalas, Claudio Reyna, Brad Friedel, Cobi Jones (USA) |
|
Atlanta 1996 (Nigeria) |
U23 national team and three over-aged players |
Daniel Amokachi, Nwankwo Kanu, Sunday Oliseh, Jay Jay Okocha, Taribo West,
Celestine Babayaro (Nigeria), Hidetoshi Nakata, Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Japan),
Ronaldo, Aldair, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, Dida, Bebeto (Brasil), Richard
Kingson, Samuel Kuffour (Ghana), Gianluca Pagliauca, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio
Cannavaro, Damiano Tomassi, Marco Delvecchio (Italy), Hwang Sun-Hong, Choi
Yong Soo (South Korea), Luis Garcia, Jorge Campos, Claudio Suarez, Cuauhtemoc
Blanco (Mexico), Mark Viduka (Australia), Sylvain Wiltord, Robert Pires,
Vincent Candela (France), Fuad Amin (KSA), Raul Gonzales, Gaizka Mendieta,
Fernando Morientes, Ivan de La Pena (Spain), Hernan Crespo, Javier Zanetti,
Marcelo Gallardo, Ariel Ortega, Roberto Ayala, Diego Simeone (Argentina),
Nuno Gomes (Portugal), Adel Sellimi, Radhi Jaidi (Tunisia), Kasey Keller,
Alexi Lalas, Claudio Reyna (USA). |
|
Sydney 2000 (Cameroon) |
U23 national team and three over-aged players |
Pierre Wome, Geremi Njitap, Samuel Eto’o, Patrick Mboma, Carlos
Kameni (Cameroon), Mark Viduka, Mark Bresciano, Brett Emerton, Lucas Neill
(Australia), Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy), Yakubu
Ayegbini, Celestine Babayaro (Nigeria), Ivan Zamorano (Chile), Xavi, Carles
Puyol (Spain), Park Ji-Sung, Lee Chun-Soo (South Korea) Milan Baros, Milan
Jankulovski, Tomas Ujfalusi (Czechia), Brad Friedel, Tim Howard, Landon
Donovan (USA), Ronaldinho (Brasil), Junichi Inamoto, Hide Nakata, Naohiro
Takahara, Shunsuke Nakamura (Japan), Quentin Fortune, Benni McCarthy (South
Africa) |
|
Athens 2004 (Argentina) |
U23 national team and three over-aged players |
Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano, Gabriel Heinze, Javier Saviola,
Lucho Gonzalez, Roberto Ayala, Kily Gonzalez (Argentina), Carlo Gamarra
(Paraguay), Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Pirlo, Alberto Gilardino, Daniel de Rossi (Italy),
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Tim Cahill (Australia), Mohammed Sissoko (Mali), Rafael Marquez, Guillermo Ochoa (Mexico), Yoo Sang Chul, Lee Chun So(South Korea), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana) |
|
Beijing 2008 (Argentina) |
U23 national team and three over-aged players |
Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria, Sergio Romero, Roman Riquelme, Javier
Mascherano, Sergio Aguero (Argentina), Ronaldinho, Thiago Silva, Marcelo (Brasil) Maya
Yoshida, Yuto Nagatomo, Keisuke Honda (Japan), Roy Makaay, Ryan Babel
(Netherlands), Jozy Altidore, Brian McBride (USA), Vincent Kompany, Thomas
Vermaelen, Marouane Fellaini (Belgium), Claudio Marchisio (Italy), Lee Chung
Yong, Park Chu Yong (South Korea) |
|
London 2012 (Mexico) |
U23 national team and three over-aged players |
Giovanni Dos Santos, Carlos Salcido, Raul Jimenez (Mexico), Pierre
Aubameyang (Gabon), Park Chu Yong (South Korea), Fabian Schar (Switzerland),
Aaron Ramsey, Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy, Daniel Sturridge (GBR), Sadio Mane
(Senegal), Mo Salah (Egypt), Luis Suarez, Edison Cavani (Uruguay), Thiago
Silva, Neymar, Hulk, Marcelo (Brasil), Chris Wood (NZL), Maya Yoshida, Hiroki Sakai
(Japan), David de Gea, Cesar Azpilicueta, Juan Mata, Jordi Alba, Isco (Spain), Yassine Bounou (Morocco) |
|
Rio de Janeiro 2016 (Brasil) |
U23 national team and three over-aged players |
Neymar, Gabi Jesus (Brasil), Teofilo Gutierrez, Jefferson Lerma
(Colombia), Wataru Endo, Takuma Asano, Takumi Minamino (Japan), Leon
Goretzka, Serge Gnabry, Niklas Sule (Germany), Hirving Lozano (Mexico), Son
Heung Min, Hwang Hee Chan (South Korea), Geronimo Rulli, Giovanni Lo Celso,
Angel Correa (Argentina), Bruno Fernandes (Portugal) |
|
Tokyo 2020 (Brasil) |
U23 national team and three over-aged players |
Richarlison, Dani Alves, Douglas Luiz, Gabriel Martinelli (Brasil), David
Raum (Germany), Franck Kessie (Ivory Coast), Randal Kolo Mouani, Andre Pierre
Gignac (France), Maya Yoshida, Take Kubo, Hiroki Sakai, Ritsu Doan, Kaoru
Mitoma (Japan), Guillermo Ochoa (Mexico), Lee Kang In, Hwang Ui Jo (South
Korea), Chris Wood (NZL), Alexis MacAllister (Argentina), Unai Simon, Marc
Cucurella, Dani Olmo, Marco Asencio, Mikel Merino, Mikel Oyarzabal, Pedri
(Spain) |
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