By David Owen
April 10 – Brazil, Argentina, Japan and Mexico, the defending champions, will be the top four seeds in this week’s draw for the men’s Olympic football tournament. Their counterparts in the women’s competition will be Brazil, the United States and Germany.
Whereas the men’s competition consists of 16 squads of predominantly under-23 players, the women’s contest does not share this age restriction, while consisting of only 12 sides. The draw will be held at the world-famous Maracanã on April 14.
The football tournament is set to be one of the most high-profile events at this summer’s Olympics, which – like the last FIFA World Cup – are taking place in football-mad Brazil. This is not least because the host nation, in spite of five silvers and two bronzes, has never captured a football gold medal.
The importance that the country attaches to rectifying this at Rio 2016 is indicated by strong expectations that Barcelona star Neymar will be part of the squad. Competing countries in the men’s tournament are each permitted three over-age players.
Mexico are the most recent country to deny Brazil’s Olympic dream, beating them 2-1 in the London 2012 men’s final at Wembley Stadium.
The previous two men’s football gold medals were won by Brazil’s arch-rivals Argentina, while the USA have dominated the women’s Olympic football competition, winning four golds out of five.
The remaining 12 countries in the men’s tournament are as follows: Nigeria, South Korea, Honduras, Iraq, Sweden, Fiji, Portugal, South Africa, Algeria, Colombia, Denmark and Germany.
The other nine women’s participants are France, Australia, Sweden, Canada, China, New Zealand, Colombia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The “general principle” for each tournament’s draw is said to be to ensure that no four-team group has more than one team from the same Confederation.
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