With another edition of the Olympic Games drawing nearer, Paris 2024 is starting to take shape. On Wednesday, the group stage draw for the men’s football (soccer) event took place.
The United States Men’s National Team will take on France in the Opening Match of the men’s football event on July 24. These are the groups for the men’s 2024 Olympic tournament:
Group A: France, USA, AFC-CAF (TBD, Intercontinental playoff), New Zealand
Group B: Argentina, Morocco, AFC 3, Ukraine
Group C: AFC 2, Spain, Egypt, Dominican Republic
Group D: AFC 1, Paraguay, Mali, Israel
Host nation France will also play in the inaugural match of the women’s event, with their team taking on Colombia a day after the curtain-raiser. These are the groups for the women’s football tournament:
Group A: France, Colombia, Canada, New Zealand
Group B: USA, CAF 2 (Zambia or Morocco), Germany, Australia
Group C: Spain, Japan, CAF 1 (Nigeria or South Africa), Brazil
Men’s Olympic football tournament: Dates, participant teams and remaining berths
The men’s football tournament in the upcoming Olympics will be held from July 24 to August 9, with 16 participant nations. The teams that have qualified so far are Argentina, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Israel, Mali, Morocco, New Zealand, Paraguay, Spain, Ukraine and the USA. The men’s competition is for U-23 players, though each team will be allowed to include up to three senior players in its squad.
Lionel Messi (L) and Sergio Aguero gold medal pose in 2008.
Three of the remaining four Olympic berths will be at stake in the AFC U-23 Cup to be played in April and May, while the other ticket to Paris 2024 will be at stake in an AFC-CAF intercontinental playoff (date TBC).
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Defending champions Brazil (who won the gold medal in the last two events) won’t be in France to defend their crown as they finished behind Paraguay and Argentina in the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic competition.
Women’s Olympic football tournament: Dates, participant nations and remaining spots
The women’s competition will take place from July 25 to August 10 with 12 teams battling it out for the ultimate glory: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the USA. Unlike the men’s event, the women’s tournament is played by senior national teams.
The two remaining tickets for the women’s tournament will be up for grabs in Africa’s Olympic qualifiers, to be played in April with Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia all in contention.
Canada will be looking to defend the gold medal they claimed at Tokyo 2020, while the USWNT aims to pull off its fifth triumph. This will be the first time the Olympic Football Tournaments culminate with the women’s final.
