Football at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's qualification

Eight teams competed in the women's football tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics. In addition to the host nation, the United States, seven other teams qualified for the tournament based on the results from the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Method

Unlike the men's competition, there was no fixed slot allocation for the women's tournament. Instead, the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup would be used as the preliminary competition to qualify teams for the inaugural women's Olympic football tournament, which featured eight teams. The United States automatically qualified for the tournament as hosts, leaving seven spots to be determined by the Women's World Cup. Teams were ranked based on their results in the tournament, with the top seven teams in the ranking qualifying for the Olympics (excluding the United States and England, a non-IOC member).^[1][2]

1995 FIFA Women's World Cup

Main article: 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup

Qualification

Main article: 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification

Twelve teams qualified for the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup in Sweden based on a fixed slot allocation.

Confederation	Slots	Tournament	Teams qualified
AFC (Asia)	2	Football at the 1994 Asian Games – Women's tournament	China  Japan
CAF (Africa)	1	1995 African Women's Championship	Nigeria
CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean)	2	1994 CONCACAF Women's Championship	Canada  United States
CONMEBOL (South America)	1	1995 South American Women's Football Championship	Brazil
OFC (Oceania)	1	1994 OFC Women's Championship	Australia
UEFA (Europe)	5	Host country	Sweden
		UEFA Women's Euro 1995	Denmark  England  Germany  Norway

Group stage

Group A	Group B	Group C
Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1  Germany 3 6 2  Sweden (H) 3 6 3  Japan 3 3 4  Brazil 3 3 Source: FIFA (H) Hosts	Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1  Norway 3 9 2  England 3 6 3  Canada 3 1 4  Nigeria 3 1 Source: FIFA	Pos Team v t e Pld Pts 1  United States 3 7 2  China 3 7 3  Denmark 3 3 4  Australia 3 0 Source: FIFA

Ranking of third-placed teams

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	Pts
1	Denmark	3	3
2	Japan	3	3
3	Canada	3	1

Source: FIFA

Knockout stage

Main article: 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup knockout stage

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	13 June – Västerås
	Germany	3
					15 June – Helsingborg
	England	0
					Germany	1
	13 June – Helsingborg
					China	0
	Sweden	1 (3)
									18 June – Solna
	China (p)	1 (4)
									Germany	0
	13 June – Gävle
									Norway	2
	Japan	0
					15 June – Västerås
	United States	4
					United States	0
	13 June – Karlstad
					Norway	1			Third place play-off
	Norway	3
									17 June – Gävle
	Denmark	1
									China	0
									United States	2

Ranking of teams

See also: 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup § Tournament ranking

Teams were ranked by the round/place which they reached, and then by points, goal difference and goals scored. Teams eliminated in the quarter-finals are ranked by their quarter-final goal differential. Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	B	Norway	6	6	0	0	23	1	+22	18	Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics
2	A	Germany	6	4	0	2	13	6	+7	12
3	C	United States	6	4	1	1	15	5	+10	13	Automatically qualified (host)
4	C	China	6	2	2	2	11	10	+1	8	Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics
5	A	Sweden	4	2	1	1	6	4	+2	7
6	C	Denmark	4	1	0	3	7	8	−1	3
7	B	England	4	2	0	2	6	9	−3	6	Ineligible (not an IOC member)
8	A	Japan	4	1	0	3	2	8	−6	3	Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics
9	A	Brazil	3	1	0	2	3	8	−5	3
10	B	Canada	3	0	1	2	5	13	−8	1
11	B	Nigeria	3	0	1	2	5	14	−9	1
12	C	Australia	3	0	0	3	3	13	−10	0

Source: FIFA Technical Report^[3]

Qualified teams

Team	Confederation	Qualified as	Qualified on
United States	CONCACAF	Host	18 September 1993[4]
Norway	UEFA	Women's World Cup winner	9 June 1995
Germany	UEFA	Women's World Cup runner-up	9 June 1995
China	AFC	Women's World Cup fourth-place	9 June 1995
Sweden	UEFA	Women's World Cup fifth-place	9 June 1995
Denmark	UEFA	Women's World Cup sixth-place	10 June 1995
Japan	AFC	Women's World Cup eighth-place	10 June 1995
Brazil	CONMEBOL	Women's World Cup ninth-place	10 June 1995

Breakdown by confederation

No teams from Africa (CAF) or Oceania (OFC) managed to qualify for the Olympic tournament.

Confederation	Teams qualified
AFC	2
CAF	0
CONCACAF	1
CONMEBOL	1
OFC	0
UEFA	4