A brief history of football at the Games

History News today looks back at the history of football at the Olympic Games

The Olympic football tournament does not have the prestige of the major competitions organized by FIFA or even UEFA. Initially, this was not the case. Football at the games was planned from the beginning, even before the birth of FIFA (on May 21, 1904). As early as 1896 and the first tournament in 1900 was won by the English team.

Until the first World Cup in 1930, the Olympic tournament was the reference. It was won in 1924 and 1928 by Uruguay and this is one of the reasons why this country was chosen as host of the first cup in 1930.

From there, the two initially complementary events end up becoming rivals. First, there is the tension posed by the fact that football is professional. This has allowed for some great victories by Eastern countries whose championships were considered amateur after 1945. But this obstacle has been removed since 1984. The year of a great French team, coached by Henry Michel, which won the gold medal.

But this medal weighs less in the same year than that of the A team in the European Cup, with Platini, Tigana, Giresse.

The differential increased when in 1992 it was decided to rejuvenate the Olympic tournament by taking players under 23 with 3 exceptions per team from 1996. That year, moreover, football saw a great result, the victory of Nigeria which brought the African continent a gold medal. A victory still not obtained in the World Cup.

This gap between the two competitions comes from the fact that professional clubs do not want to loan their best players to avoid injuries. But also because FIFA does not encourage them to do so because it manages its own global event: the World Cup and does not want to compete with itself in the sale of derivative rights.

“I’m not interested in the French Olympic team. Football is not an Olympic sport.”

As a result, football at the Games has a youthful taste and this sport is in a more modest position than other team sports. To the point that Michel Platini said just before the Games that he would not watch the tournament and that football was not an Olympic sport. Word of a professional football man.

A way of also showing that football does not carry the same values ​​depending on the competition, torn as it is between professional affairs and stock market listings on the one hand, and the mass of amateurs for whom this sport is a school of life.