Football at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's qualification

Twelve teams competed in the women's football tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics. In addition to host nation Brazil, 11 women's national teams qualified from six separate continental confederations.

Table

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.^[1]

Means of qualification	Dates⁴	Venue⁴	Berths	Qualified
Host country	2 October 2009	Denmark	1	Brazil
2014 Copa América^[2]	11–28 September 2014	Ecuador	1	Colombia
2015 FIFA World Cup^[3] (for UEFA eligible teams)⁵	6 June – 5 July 2015	Canada	2	Germany
2015 FIFA World Cup^[3] (for UEFA eligible teams)⁵	6 June – 5 July 2015	Canada	2	France
2015 CAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament^[4]	2–18 October 2015	Various (home and away)	2	South Africa
2015 CAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament^[4]	2–18 October 2015	Various (home and away)	2	Zimbabwe⁶
2016 OFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament^[5]	23 January 2016	Papua New Guinea	1	New Zealand
2016 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship^[6]	10–21 February 2016	United States	2	United States
2016 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship^[6]	10–21 February 2016	United States	2	Canada
2016 AFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament^[7]	29 February – 9 March 2016	Japan^[8]	2	Australia
2016 AFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament^[7]	29 February – 9 March 2016	Japan^[8]	2	China
2016 UEFA Olympic Qualifying Tournament^[9]	2–9 March 2016	Netherlands	1	Sweden
Total			12

^4 Dates and venues are those of final tournaments (or final round of qualification tournaments), various qualification stages may precede matches at these specific venues.
^5 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.
^6 Nations making their Olympic tournament debut

AFC

Australia and China PR earned Olympic qualification places by finishing in the top two of the standings of the final round.

First round

Group A

Group B

Group C

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Myanmar (H)	2	6
2	India	2	3
3	Sri Lanka	2	0
4	Bahrain	0	0

Source: AFC
(H) Hosts

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Jordan (H)	3	9
2	Uzbekistan	3	6
3	Hong Kong	3	1
4	Palestine	3	1

Source: AFC
(H) Hosts

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Chinese Taipei (H)	2	6
2	Iran	2	3
3	Laos	2	0

Source: AFC
(H) Hosts

Second round

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Vietnam	4	9
2	Chinese Taipei	4	7
3	Thailand	4	7
4	Myanmar (H)	4	6
5	Jordan	4	0

Source: AFC
(H) Hosts

Final round

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Australia	5	13
2	China	5	11
3	Japan (H)	5	7
4	South Korea	5	5
5	North Korea	5	5
6	Vietnam	5	0

Source: AFC
(H) Hosts

CAF

South Africa and Zimbabwe earned Olympic qualification places by winning their fourth round ties.

First round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Guinea-Bissau	w/o	Liberia	—	—
Gabon	w/o	Libya	—	—

Second round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Liberia	w/o	Cameroon	—	—
Egypt	1–4	Ghana	1–1	0–3
Ivory Coast	w/o	Tunisia	—	—
Zambia	2–2 (a)	Zimbabwe	2–1	0–1
Gabon	2–8	South Africa	2–3	0–5
Botswana	2–2 (a)	Kenya	2–1	0–1
Nigeria	w/o	Mali	—	—
Congo	0–7	Equatorial Guinea	0–3	0–4

Third round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Cameroon	3–3 (a)	Ghana	1–1	2–2
Ivory Coast	w/o	Zimbabwe	3–0 (awd.)	—
South Africa	2–0	Kenya	1–0	1–0
Nigeria	2–3	Equatorial Guinea	1–1	1–2 (a.e.t.)

Fourth round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Cameroon	2–2 (a)	Zimbabwe	2–1	0–1
South Africa	1–0	Equatorial Guinea	0–0	1–0

CONCACAF

The United States and Canada earned Olympic qualification places by winning their semi-final matches.

Preliminary round

Caribbean Zone

First round

Group 1

Group 2

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Puerto Rico (H)	3	9
2	Haiti	3	6
3	Grenada	3	3
4	Aruba	3	0

Source: CFU
(H) Hosts

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Trinidad and Tobago (H)	2	6
2	Saint Lucia	2	0
3	Antigua and Barbuda	0	0
3	Cayman Islands	0	0

Source: CFU
(H) Hosts

Group 3

Group 4

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Jamaica	2	6
2	Dominican Republic (H)	2	3
3	Dominica	2	0
4	Suriname	0	0

Source: CFU
(H) Hosts

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Guyana	2	4
2	Cuba	2	4
3	Saint Kitts and Nevis	2	0

Source: CFU

Final round

Semi-finals		Final

18 November – Couva

Puerto Rico (a.e.t.)	1
		20 November – Couva
Guyana	0
		Puerto Rico	0
18 November – Couva
		Trinidad and Tobago	1
Trinidad and Tobago (a.e.t.)	2

Jamaica	1
		Third place play-off

		20 November – Couva

		Guyana	2

		Jamaica	1

Central American Zone

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Costa Rica	3	9
2	Guatemala	3	6
3	El Salvador	3	3
4	Nicaragua (H)	3	0
5	Honduras	0	0

Source: UNCAF
(H) Hosts

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	United States (H)	3	9
2	Costa Rica	3	6
3	Mexico	3	3
4	Puerto Rico	3	0

Source: CONCACAF
(H) Hosts

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Canada	3	9
2	Trinidad and Tobago	3	6
3	Guyana	3	3
4	Guatemala	3	0

Source: CONCACAF

Knockout stage

Semi-finals		Final

19 February – Houston

Canada	3
		21 February – Houston
Costa Rica	1
		Canada	0
19 February – Houston
		United States	2
United States	5

Trinidad and Tobago	0

CONMEBOL

Colombia earned an Olympic qualification place by finishing second in the Copa América Femenina. Brazil automatically qualified as the Olympic host.

First stage

Group A

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Colombia	4	12
2	Ecuador (H)	4	6
3	Uruguay	4	6
4	Venezuela	4	4
5	Peru	4	1

Source: CONMEBOL
(H) Hosts

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Brazil	4	9
2	Argentina	4	9
3	Paraguay	4	6
4	Chile	4	6
5	Bolivia	4	0

Source: CONMEBOL

Final stage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Brazil	3	7
2	Colombia	3	5
3	Ecuador (H)	3	3
4	Argentina	3	1

Source: CONMEBOL
(H) Hosts

OFC

New Zealand earned an Olympic qualification place by winning their second round tie.

First stage

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	New Caledonia	3	7
2	Samoa	3	7
3	Tonga	3	3
4	Solomon Islands	3	0

Source: OFC

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Papua New Guinea (H)	2	6
2	Cook Islands	2	1
3	Fiji	2	1

Source: OFC
(H) Hosts

Knockout stage

Semi-finals		Gold medal match

13 July – Port Moresby

New Caledonia	5
		16 July – Port Moresby
Cook Islands	1
		New Caledonia	0
13 July – Port Moresby
		Papua New Guinea	1
Papua New Guinea	3

Samoa	0
		Bronze medal match

		16 July – Port Moresby

		Cook Islands	2

		Samoa	0

Second stage

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Papua New Guinea	1–7	New Zealand	1–7	Canc.

UEFA

Same as the qualification process for previous Olympics, UEFA used the FIFA Women's World Cup to determine which women's national teams from Europe qualify for the Olympic football tournament. The three teams from UEFA that progressed the furthest in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup played in Canada, other than ineligible England, would qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics women's football tournament in Brazil.^[10]^[11] If teams in contention for the Olympic spots were eliminated in the same round, ties were not broken by their overall tournament record, and play-offs or a mini-tournament to decide the spots would be held provisionally in February/March 2016.^[12]

England were ineligible for the Olympics as they were not an Olympic nation, although Great Britain did compete in 2012 as the host nation. The Football Association had originally declared on 2 March 2015 its intention to enter and run teams on behalf of the British Olympic Association at the 2016 Olympics should England qualify.^[13] Following strong objections from the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish football associations, and a commitment from FIFA that they would not allow entry of a British team unless all four Home Nations agreed, the Football Association announced on 30 March 2015 that they would not seek entry into the Olympic tournament.^[14]

After Norway were eliminated by England in the round of 16 on 22 June 2015, it was confirmed that two of the three spots would go to quarter-finalists France and Germany because there could not be more than three eligible European teams in the quarter-finals. Eventually no other eligible European team reached the quarter-finals, so the four European teams eliminated in the round of 16 (Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland) would compete in the UEFA play-off tournament to decide the last spot.^[15]

Sweden earned UEFA's last Olympic qualification place by winning the qualifying tournament.

FIFA Women's World Cup

UEFA teams qualified for 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup
Team	Final result in 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup	Qualification for 2016 Summer Olympics
England	Third place	Ineligible
Germany	Fourth place	Qualified
France	Eliminated in quarter-finals	Qualified
Netherlands	Eliminated in round of 16	Play-off tournament
Norway
Sweden
Switzerland
Spain	Eliminated in group stage

Olympic qualifying tournament

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Sweden	3	7
2	Netherlands (H)	3	4
3	Switzerland	3	3
4	Norway	3	3

Source: UEFA
(H) Hosts

References

^ "FIFA ratifies the distribution of seats corresponding to each confederation". CONMEBOL.com. 4 April 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
^ "Reglamento – Copa América Femenina 2014" (PDF) (in Spanish). CONMEBOL.
^ "Germany and Norway drawn together". UEFA.com. 6 December 2014.
^ "CAF Full Calendar". CAFonline.com. 28 February 2015. Archived from the original on 14 February 2015. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
^ "OFC Insider Issue 6". Oceania Football Confederation. 11 March 2015. p. 8.
^ "2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship Will be Played in Dallas and Houston". US Soccer. 12 August 2015.
^ "Groups drawn for First Round of Rio 2016 Women's Qualifiers". Asian Football Confederation. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
^ "Football - Women's AFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament". Australian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
^ "European contenders impress in Canada". UEFA.com. 18 June 2015.
^ "QUALIFICATION SYSTEM – GAMES OF THE XXXI OLYMPIAD – RIO 2016 – Football" (PDF). Rio 2016 Official Website. 23 April 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
^ "Germany and Norway drawn together". UEFA.com. 6 December 2014.
^ "European contenders impress in Canada". UEFA.com. 18 June 2015.
^ "Football Association wants Great Britain sides at Rio Olympics". BBC Sport. 2 March 2015.
^ "Rio 2016: FA scraps plans for Great Britain football teams". BBC Sport. 30 March 2015.
^ "Germany, France qualify for Rio 2016". FIFA. 23 June 2015. Archived from the original on June 23, 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
^ "Info on the Olympic Qualifying Tournament". KNVB. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 2 March 2016.

[distribution-1] "FIFA ratifies the distribution of seats corresponding to each confederation". CONMEBOL.com. 4 April 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.

[2] "Reglamento – Copa América Femenina 2014" (PDF) (in Spanish). CONMEBOL.

[3] "Germany and Norway drawn together". UEFA.com. 6 December 2014.

[caf-4] "CAF Full Calendar". CAFonline.com. 28 February 2015. Archived from the original on 14 February 2015. Retrieved 28 February 2015.

[oceania-5] "OFC Insider Issue 6". Oceania Football Confederation. 11 March 2015. p. 8.

[6] "2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship Will be Played in Dallas and Houston". US Soccer. 12 August 2015.

[7] "Groups drawn for First Round of Rio 2016 Women's Qualifiers". Asian Football Confederation. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2014.

[8] "Football - Women's AFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament". Australian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 28 July 2015.

[9] "European contenders impress in Canada". UEFA.com. 18 June 2015.

[Rio2016-10] "QUALIFICATION SYSTEM – GAMES OF THE XXXI OLYMPIAD – RIO 2016 – Football" (PDF). Rio 2016 Official Website. 23 April 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2015.

[11] "Germany and Norway drawn together". UEFA.com. 6 December 2014.

[12] "European contenders impress in Canada". UEFA.com. 18 June 2015.

[fa-13] "Football Association wants Great Britain sides at Rio Olympics". BBC Sport. 2 March 2015.

[14] "Rio 2016: FA scraps plans for Great Britain football teams". BBC Sport. 30 March 2015.

[15] "Germany, France qualify for Rio 2016". FIFA. 23 June 2015. Archived from the original on June 23, 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2015.

[16] "Info on the Olympic Qualifying Tournament". KNVB. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 2 March 2016.

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Football at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Qualification
	men	women
Tournament
	men	women
Squads
	men	women
v t e