Football at the 1984 Summer Olympics
 |
|
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | United States |
| Dates |
29 July – 11 August 1984 (13 days) |
| Teams | 16 (from 5 confederations) |
| Venue(s) | 4 (in 4 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 France (1st title)
|
| Runners-up |
 Brazil
|
| Third place |
 Yugoslavia
|
| Fourth place |
 Italy
|
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 32 |
| Goals scored | 84 (2.63 per match) |
| Attendance | 1,425,181 (44,537 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
Daniel Xuereb Borislav Cvetković Stjepan Deverić (5 goals each) |
The association football tournament at the 1984 Summer Olympics started on July 29 and ended on August 11. It featured only a men's tournament, as women's football had yet to become an Olympic event. It was the first Olympic football competition in which professionals were allowed. Until then, the amateur-only rule had heavily favored socialist countries from Eastern Europe whose players were professionals in all but name. However, as agreed with FIFA to preserve the primacy of the World Cup, the Olympic competition was restricted to players with no more than five "A" caps at tournament start, regardless of age.
The football tournament was held in four venues:
The Gold Medal game between France and Brazil at the Rose Bowl attracted an Olympic Games football attendance record of 101,799. Until 2014 this remained the record attendance for a football game in the United States. This broke the previous Olympics record attendance of 100,000 set at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia for the corresponding game of the 1956 Olympic Games played between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. The Rose Bowl attendance would remain the Olympic record until 104,098 attended the Gold Medal game of the 2000 Summer Olympics between Cameroon and Spain at the Stadium Australia in Sydney.
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