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Football made its Olympic debut in Paris
in 1900, along with water polo, rugby, cricket, polo and tug-of-war.
Since its introduction, football for men has missed featuring on the
Olympic program only once, at Los Angeles 1932. Women’s football was added to the Olympic program at Atlanta 1996.
Over recent years the eligibility criteria for Olympic football players has changed. Originally,
only amateurs were permitted to play. After World War II, the
state-supported teams from Communist countries were permitted to play.
The strength of those Eastern Bloc teams is evidenced by their
creditable performances in the World Cups, against the fully
professional teams from Western Europe and South America, soon after competing in the Olympics. Hungary won the gold medal at Helsinki 1952 and two years later, many from that squad played in the team that finished second to West Germany in the 1954 World Cup. The same thing happened with the Polish team that won the gold medal at Munich
1972 and two years later finished third in the 1974 World Cup. Such was
the dominance of the Iron Curtain team that they won every gold medal,
but one, from 1952 until 1988. The only Olympic title missed was Los Angeles 1984 when most of the powerful football countries were missing because of the USSR-led boycott.
In 1984, professional players from Europe and South America
were permitted to play Olympic football only if they had not competed
in a World Cup. In 1992, the sport was opened to all players,
professional and amateur, who were under 23 years of age. In 1996,
three over-age players were permitted to be added to the squads.
In 1996 and 2000, the emergence of African football was seen with the gold medals going to Ghana in Atlanta and Cameroon in Sydney.
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