Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | Australia |
| Dates | November 24-December 8 |
| Teams | 11 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 Soviet Union (1st title)
|
| Runners-up |  Yugoslavia |
| Third place |  Bulgaria |
| Fourth place |  India |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 12 |
| Goals scored | 53 (4.42 per match) |
| Attendance | 194,333 (16,194 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
Neville D'Souza Todor Veselinović Dimitar Milanov (4 goals each) |
The association football tournament at the 1956 Summer Olympics was won by the Soviet Union.
Following five withdrawals, the tournament featured three Eastern bloc teams and four from Asia in a tournament that matched professionals against the amateurs required in Olympics. The other sides included in the draw were from the United States, Germany (West and East united), Great Britain and the hosts Australia, featuring in their very first Olympic football tournament.
The ability to develop an "amateur" side around two or three long-term internationals could only be achieved by use of the tendency of Eastern bloc sides to provide state-funding for their athletes. This compared most favourably with the Australians who did not pay their footballers during the tournament; player income was supported by community fund-raising.
Of the Australian squad, in Melbourne's The Age newspaper, Alex Barr wrote:
Some of the players selected in the 1956 Australian squad included the following Football Hall of Fame inductees:
Hall of Champions → Bob Bignall and Ron Lord
Medal of Excellence → Frank Loughran
Award of Distinction → William Henderson, Graham McMillan, Bruce Morrow and Cliff Sander
Five teams withdrew (Egypt, China, Turkey, South Vietnam, and the football team of Hungary, a nation that was cheered in other Olympic contests due to the ongoing suppression by Soviet troops), which left only three games to play in the first round.
...
Wikipedia