IT WAS THE OLYMPICS

 The Summer Olympic Games should be under way and Football very much part of the tournament. Covid of course has postponed the competition this summer and it has been moved to July 22nd -August 8th 2021, all being well.

The Women play in the 7th Edition, the first being held in 1996 in Atlanta.
The USA Women have won 4 Gold medals but not in 2016.
The following will take part next time:
Japan, Australia, Netherlands, Sweden, Great Britain, USA, Canada, Zambia, Brazil, New Zealand with two to come from China PR, Korea Rep, Cameroon or Chile

The Men will play in the 25th Edition of the tournament and the following 16 teams have qualified:
Asia: Japan Australia, Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Europe: France, Germany, Romania, Spain
Africa: Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, South Africa
South America: Argentina, Brazil
Oceana: New Zealand with 2 remaining spots.
Professionals have been allowed to play since 1992 but with Under 23s and 3 over aged players.
Past players have included: Kocsis, Puskas,Yashin, Bene, Guardiola, Kanu, Tevez, Aguero, Messi, Jimenez,Jesus, Neymar.

Hungary have won 3 Gold medals. Argentina 2 Golds. Brazil holds 6 medals of different colours.

Medal games will be played between August 5th, 6th (Women Gold) and 7th (Men Gold).

In 1900, the first modern Olympics saw GB Men win in Paris, beating the hosts.
In 1904 the Canadians won in St Louis. USA came second.
In 1908 Britain Men won again in London between October 19th and 24th, the FA arranged an "Olympic" football tournament with 6 teams taking part. Matches were played at the White City Stadium. Here's the winning trophy:


Great Britain won the tournament with Denmark coming into silver place, Netherlands 3rd and Sweden 4th.

On October 24th, Britain won 2-0 with goals from Frederick Chapman and Vivian Woodward (below).
Chapman played a bit for Nottingham Forest, but was mainly an amateur and Woodward was a Spurs man until 1909(131 apps 61 goals) and then played for Chelsea up to 1915 (106 apps 30 goals).
He also played for the full England side 23 times, scoring 29 goals, as well as for the Amateurs 44 times with 57 goals. His career with the Football League XI lasted 3 games and 3 goals.
The War put pay to his post 1919 career, which ended at Clacton FC (6 apps 4 goals)

John Lewis of Great Britain reffed! 8,000 watched the final.
France entered an "A" and "B" side both of which were eliminated before the semis.
Denmark's Sophus Nielsen scored 10 in a 17-1 defeat of France in the qualification.

In 1912, 11 teams played in the next tournament with Sweden as hosts. England won again beating Denmark, again.
After the War, the mood wasn't great but there was another Olympic Tournament in 1920 and Belgium won that, with Uruguay taking the 1924 Gold Medal in Paris.

England have not featured again in the medal positions.