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 Brazil's host nation, 11 women's national teams were qualified from six continental confederations.

Table

In addition to Brazil's host nation, 11 women's national teams were qualified from six 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
				France
2015 CAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament[4]	2–18 October 2015	Various (home and away)	2	South Africa
				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
				Canada
2016 AFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament[7]	29 February – 9 March 2016	Japan[8]	2	Australia
				China
2016 UEFA Olympic Qualifying Tournament[9]	2–9 March 2016	Netherlands	1	Sweden
Total			12

• ^4 The dates and venues are those of the final tournaments (or final round of the 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

Main article: 2016 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament

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

Main article: 2015 CAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament

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

Main article: 2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship

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

Preliminary round

Main article: 2016 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship qualification

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

Main article: 2014 Copa América Femenina

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

Main article: 2016 OFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament

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

First stage

Main article: Football at the 2015 Pacific Games – Women's tournament

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

Similar to 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 would not be 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 was ineligible for the Olympics as it was 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 England eliminated Norway 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 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

Main article: 2015 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
Netherlands	Eliminated in round of 16	Play-off tournament
Norway
Sweden
Switzerland
Spain	Eliminated in group stage

Olympic qualifying tournament

Main article: 2016 UEFA Women's 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