All About the Olympics
Everything you need to know about Paris 2024 and how Women's Soccer at the Olympics works.
Paris 2024
Paris is hosting this summer's Olympics. Read on to find out everything you need to know about the host nation.
When and where are this summer's Olympics?
This summer, from July 26th to August 11th, the 2024 Summer Olympics will be held in France. Paris will be the main host city, with events taking place in 16 other cities. France was officially awarded the bid in September 2017 when the only two bids left were Paris and Los Angeles, with Los Angeles being awarded the 2028 bid. Paris previously hosted in 1900 and 1924, becoming the second city to host three summer Olympics. Soccer matches will be held in stadiums across France, with the gold medal match being held in Parc des Princes, PSG’s stadium in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
Parc des Princes
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard
Stade de Lyon
Stade de Nice
Stade de Marseille
Stade de la Beaujoire
Stade de Bordeaux
Background on the Olympics
How do the Olympics work? What happened at the last Olympics? How does it compare to the men's side? Read on to find out all the background you need to know for this summer.
What happened last Olympics at Tokyo 2020?
The previous Olympics took place in Tokyo, delayed a year to 2021 due to the pandemic. In addition to the years delay, there were a variety of other COVID restrictions that changed how the Olympics, and specifically women’s football at the Olympics, worked. One of the big changes was that teams were allowed to bring 22 players instead of 18. Usually (and this summer), teams are only allowed to register an 18 player team with 2 goalkeepers and 16 outfield players. Teams are allowed to name 4 alternate players with 1 goalkeeper and 3 outfield players. These alternates are only allowed to be used to permanently replace an injured player, keeping the squad at 18. For Tokyo 2020, FIFA allowed all 22 players to be named to the roster for COVID protocols, with only 18 allowed to be named for each match (meaning they could only play those 18 players in that specific match, but it could change with each match).
This change in alternates rules at Tokyo 2020 was a big change, allowing more squad rotation and more players to get to play at the Olympics. The 18-player squad is something that makes the Olympics a unique tournament, as most major tournaments, including the Women’s World Cup allow a 23-player squad, making the roster selection for the Olympics much more competitive and the tournament much more physically demanding.
The last Olympics saw Canada take home gold, beating Sweden on penalties. The US beat Australia in the third place match to take home bronze. The other teams participating included Chile, Great Britain, Japan, Brazil, China PR, the Netherlands, Zambia, and New Zealand.
The US has won the most gold medals, winning in 1996, 2004, 2008, and 2012 in London. Norway, Germany, and Canada each have one gold, from 2000, 2016, and 2020.
How is women's soccer at the Olympics different from men's?
While women’s football at the Olympics is similar to the men’s, there is one glaring difference: the age of the players. Only players 3 players over the age of 23 are allowed to compete according to FIFA and the International Olympic Committee. The women’s side features full senior national teams with no age restrictions at all. FIFA’s commitment to making sure their World Cup is the biggest international football event and is not overshadowed by the Olympics is clear in their keeping the men’s side essentially a youth tournament, while the women’s side is entirely unregulated.
A few other differences include that the men’s side of the tournament has 16 teams compared to the women’s 12 teams (while last summer’s Women’s World Cup featured 32 teams!). Men’s soccer has also been played at every summer Olympics, while women’s soccer only started at the olympics in 1996.
Qualification
Why are these teams at the Olympics and not others? And why are there so few teams in this tournament? Read on to find out more about teams qualified for this tournament.
How do teams qualify?
Teams qualify through their confederations. Confederations group international federations (or country’s national teams) together geographically to hold tournaments and qualifications for international competitions. Each confederation is allotted a certain amount of places in the olympics. The host nation automatically qualifies regardless of their performance in their qualifiers. In February 2022, FIFA announced that each confederation would be given two places at Paris 2024, except for OFC who was given only one place. Each federation holds their own tournament to determine qualification.
What are the different confederations?
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CAF: Confederation of African Football
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56 football federations with 54 being FIFA members
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UEFA: Union of of European Football Associations
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55 federations
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AFC: Asian Football Confederation
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47 football federations with 46 being FIFA members
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CONCACAF: Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football
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41 federations with 35 being FIFA members
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OFC: Oceania Football Confederation
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14 federations with 11 being FIFA members
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CONMEBOL: Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol
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10 federations
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Who is representing the different confederations this summer?
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Host Nation: France
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CAF: Zambia and Nigeria
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UEFA: Spain and Germany
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AFC: Australia and Japan
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CONCACAF: USA and Canada
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OFC: New Zealand
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CONMEBOL: Brazil and Colombia
Timeline of Qualifications
The Group Stage
The first part of the tournament is the Group Stage where teams play in a round-robin style to advance. Read on to learn more about how play works, how the groups were created, and more.
How were these groups created?
The 3 groups (A, B, and C) were drawn in March 2024. The 12 teams were assigned to one of four pots based on their FIFA Women’s World Ranking as of March. The host nation France was automatically seeded to pot 1 and assigned position A1.
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FIFA rankings as of March 2024 are in parentheses.
Pot 1
France (3), Spain (1), USA (4)
Pot 2
Germany (5), Japan (7), Canada (9)
Pot 3
Brazil (10), Australia (12), Colombia (23)
Pot 4
New Zealand (28), Nigeria (36), Zambia (65)
The teams were then randomly drawn with one team from each pot. No more than one team from each confederation could be drawn into the same group (so the US couldn’t be in the same group as Canada, for example).
How does Group Stage play work?
The tournament starts with a round-robin style group stage. Each team will play the other three teams in their group once.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout stage. The third place teams from each group will be ranked and the top 2 third place teams will advance to the knockout stage as well.
Group Stage Schedule
July 25th
GROUP A
GROUP B
GROUP C
July 25th
5pm
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard
Canada vs New Zealand
7pm
Stade de Marseille
Germany vs Australia
5pm
Stade de la Beaujoire
Spain vs Japan
9pm
Stade de Lyon
France vs Colombia
7pm
Stade de Nice
USA vs Zambia
5pm
Stade de Bordeaux
Nigeria vs Brazil
GROUP A
GROUP B
GROUP C
July 28th
5pm
Stade de Lyon
New Zealand vs Colombia
7pm
Stade de Nice
Australia vs Zambia
5pm
Parc des Princes
Brazil vs Japan
9pm
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard
France vs Canada
9pm
Stade de Marseille
USA vs Germany
7pm
Stade de la Beaujoire
Spain vs Nigeria
GROUP A
GROUP B
GROUP C
July 30th
9pm
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard
New Zealand vs France
7pm
Stade de Marseille
Australia vs USA
5pm
Stade de Bordeaux
Brazil vs Spain
9pm
Stade de Nice
Colombia vs Canada
7pm
Stade Geoffroy Guichard
Zambia vs Germany
5pm
Stade de la Beaujoire
Japan vs Nigeria
How are teams ranked in the group stage?
Teams are first ranked based on points gained from winning or tying a game.
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​Win = 3 points
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Tie = 1 point
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Loss = 0 points
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If there is a tie in points, goal difference is the next factor.
Goal difference = goals scored in all games - goals conceded
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If a tie remains, the following elements are gone through in order to decide the rankings.
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Goals scored in all matches
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Points obtained in matches played between teams in question of order
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Goal difference in matches played between teams in question of order
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Goals scored in matches played between teams in question
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Fair play points in all matches
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Yellow card: -1 point
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Indirect red card (ie 2 yellow cards): -3 points
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Direct red card: -4 points
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Yellow card and direct red card -5 points
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If no tie breaker can be determined, lots are randomly drawn.
The Knockout Stage
After the group stage is the knockout stage where teams play in single game match-ups to determine who advances. Read on to find out more.
How does the Knockout Stage work?
After the group stage is complete, the tournament turns to the knockout stage, where teams have one shot to win each game and advance. If a game is tied after 90 minutes of regulation play, two 15 periods of extra time are played, going to a penalty shoot-out if a winner cannot be decided. Teams advancing from the group stage go straight into the quarter finals.