Changes and Developments
For the 1984 Los Angeles Games, the IOC decided to admit professional players. FIFA still did not want the Olympics to rival the World Cup, so a compromise was struck that allowed teams from Africa, Asia, Oceania and CONCACAF to field their strongest professional sides, while restricting UEFA and CONMEBOL teams to players who had not played in a World Cup. Many countries fielded young teams, including France, who won the 1984 Olympic title, coincidentally in the same year that the main team won the European Football Championship, less than two months before.
Since 1992 male competitors must be under 23 years old, with three over-23 players allowed per squad. The new format allows teams from around the world to compete equally, and African countries have taken particular advantage of this, with Nigeria and Cameroon winning in 1996 and 2000 respectively.
Because of the unusual format, several of the historically strongest footballing countries have unimpressive Olympic records. The Netherlands won bronze in the first three tournaments, but did not reach the finals between 1952 and 2008. Uruguay won the tournament in their first two attempts, in 1924 and 1928, their only appearances before they qualified for London 2012. Argentina won silver twice before the 2004 Athens Games, but its appearance in Athens, in which it won the first gold medal (the second was won in Beijing in 2008), was only their sixth overall. Brazil's silver medals in the 1984, 1988 and 2012 are the best they have achieved, and the men's team failed to qualify in 1992 and 2004. Hungary won three gold medals, in 1952, 1964 and 1968, but has not returned to the finals since 1996. Italy has only won the Olympic title once, in 1936, although it has also won two bronzes, and has the highest number of appearances in the tournament, at 15. Germany's best result was a single bronze medal, in the 1988 tournament (as West Germany), and the reunified team has yet to qualify for the Olympics.
Read more about this topic: Football At The Summer Olympics
Famous quotes containing the word developments:
“The developments in the North were those loosely embraced in the term modernization and included urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization. While those changes went forward apace, the antebellum South changed comparatively little, clinging to its rural, agricultural, labor-intensive economy and its traditional folk culture.”
—C. Vann Woodward (b. 1908)