Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's qualification


The qualification for women's football tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Qualifications

A total of twelve teams will participate in the finals of the Olympic tournament for women. These finalists were:
Confederation/RegionBerthsQualified Teams
Host nation 1
UEFA 3
    • CONMEBOL 1
    • CONCACAF 2
  • CAF 1
    • AFC 2
    • OFC 1
    • Inter-continental play-off 1

    • [UEFA] (Europe)

    UEFA announced that the 2007 Women's World Cup in the People's Republic of China will also serve as the qualifying tournament for the Olympics. Originally it was thought that, should England make the top three European teams, they would compete under the United Kingdom banner. However, on 6 September 2007, FIFA issued a press release indicating that England are ineligible to participate in the 2008 Olympics as England does not have its own Olympic Committee.
    As the result of the World Cup, Germany and Norway qualified for the Olympics, while Sweden and Denmark qualified for the play-off. There has been some further confusion over the identity of the UEFA qualifiers stemming from conflicting media releases from UEFA and FIFA. The FIFA release noted that "teams eliminated at the end of the group phase will have the same ranking irrespective of their position, number of points or goal differences", which implies that Sweden and Denmark will require a playoff for the final qualification spot. While UEFA initially stated that no playoff was required , this was amended fairly rapidly .

    Olympic play-off

    [CONMEBOL] (South America)

    CONMEBOL announced that the 2006 Sudamericano Femenino in Argentina would also serve as the qualifying tournament for the Olympics. won the tournament, and qualified for the Olympics. The runners-up advanced to the [|inter-continental play-off].

    [CONCACAF] (North, Central America and Caribbean)

    Central America

    Two home and away series will be played, with the winners moving on to the final round. The first leg will play on October 6, 2007. The second leg will play on October 13, 2007. The winners of the ties will play in the decisive final round on October 20 and October 27, 2007.
    Panama withdrew from their scheduled match against Costa Rica, so Costa Rica advance to the 2nd Round where they will play the winner of El Salvador v Nicaragua.
    Team 1AggTeam 21st leg2nd leg
    1–51–20–3
    0–90–30–6

    Caribbean

    The system is a two-round single round robin format, in October. Four groups will play the first round, with the winners moving on to a second round group.

    Group 1 (in Suriname)

    October 2, 2007
    October 4, 2007
    October 7, 2007

    Group 2 (in Dominican Republic)

    October 3, 2007
    October 5, 2007
    October 7, 2007

    Group 3 (in Antigua and Barbuda)

    October 3, 2007
    October 5, 2007
    October 7, 2007

    Group 4 (in Cayman Islands)

    October 24, 2007
    October 26, 2007
    October 28, 2007

    Second Round

    The 4 remaining teams were drawn into 2 pairings. The winners of each tie will progress to the CONCACAF Finals.
    Both Puerto Rico v Trinidad & Tobago matches will be played in Puerto Rico on 23 & 25 November 2007.
    Cuba will play both legs at home against Jamaica on 29 November and 1 December 2007, with the second match counting as Jamaica's home match for away goals purposes.
    Team 1AggTeam 21st leg2nd leg
    2–2*1–21–0
    0–30–10–2

    6 teams will qualify for the final round. The final round will be held at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, from April 2–13. The draw was held at 11:00 am on February 25.

    Group A

    April 2, 2008
    April 4, 2008
    April 6, 2008

    Group B

    April 2, 2008
    April 4, 2008
    April 6, 2008

    Semifinals/Qualifiers

    Played 9 April 2008
    Team 1ScoreTeam 2
    '3–0
    '1–0

    Final

    Played 12 April 2008. Both USA and Canada already qualified for 2008 Olympic women's football tournament.
    Team 1ScoreTeam 2
    1 – 1

    CAF">Confederation of African Football">CAF (Africa)

    Preliminary competition was divided in four rounds. First three rounds was knock-out rounds, and the final round was a group stage.
    The winners of the final round would qualify for the Olympics. The runners-up of the round would advance to inter-continental play-off.

    Preliminary Round

    First leg played from October 27 to October 29, 2006. Second leg played from November 10 to November 12, 2006.
    Team 1AggTeam 21st leg2nd leg
    '*
    '12–57–25–3
    2–4'1–11–3
    *'
    *

    First Round

    First leg played on February 17 and February 18, 2007. Second leg will play from March 9 to March 11, 2007. Eritrea and Morocco will play their matches on March 10 and March 24, 2007. Guinea and Zimbabwe only played one leg in Zimbabwe due to political unrest in Guinea.
    Team 1AggTeam 21st leg2nd leg
    1–4'1–20–2
    4–5'2–12–4
    0–5'0–30–2
    'w/o*——
    1–12'0–31–9
    4–4 '3–21–2
    5–8'3–32–5
    1–6'—1–6

    Second Round

    First leg played from June 1 to June 3, 2007. Second leg played from June 15 to June 17, 2007.
    Team 1AggTeam 21st leg2nd leg
    '4–13–11–0
    1–6'1–00–6
    '5–32–13–2
    '2–21–01–2

    Final Round

    Matches played between July 27, 2007 and March 14, 2008. Ethiopia withdrew.
    July 28, 2007
    August 12, 2007
    August 26, 2007
    December 9, 2007
    February 16, 2008
    March 15, 2008
    Nigeria qualified for the Olympics. Ghana advanced to the inter-continental play-off.

    AFC">Asian Football Confederation">AFC (Asia)

    was automatically qualified for the Olympics as host.

    First Round

    and received bye for the final round. Other 12 teams are divided into 3 groups, where top two teams in each group would advance to the final round.
    Group A was played as a knockout tournament of two-legged matches. Each of Group B and Group C was played as a single round robin.

    Group A

    First leg played on February 17, 2007. Second leg played on February 25, 2007.
    Team 1AggTeam 21st leg2nd leg
    '*
    '8–05–03–0

    Hong Kong through to the final after Jordan withdrew from the tournament. The final first and second leg played on March 10, 2007 and March 18, 2007 respectively.
    Team 1AggTeam 21st leg2nd leg
    3–22–21–0

    Group B

    All matches were held at Thai-Japanese Stadium.
    TeamPtsPldWDLGFGAGD
    93300150+15
    6320181+7
    3310268−2
    03003020−20

    February 19, 2007
    February 21, 2007
    February 23, 2007

    Group C

    All matches were held at Zhongshan Soccer Stadium.
    TeamPtsPldWDLGFGAGD
    93300201+19
    Chinese Taipei 6320148−4
    1301214−3
    13012113−12

    February 21, 2007
    February 23, 2007
    February 25, 2007

    Final Round

    Group winners would qualify for the Olympics. Matches played from April 7 to August 12, 2007.

    Group A

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    Group B

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    OFC">Oceania Football Confederation">OFC (Oceania)

    The 2007 Pacific Games was played as the first part of Oceania qualification for the 2008 Olympics. The winners of the Pacific Games, Papua New Guinea, met New Zealand in a playoff in March 2008 for a place in the Olympic Games Finals. This had originally been scheduled over two legs but the New Zealand leg was cancelled by mutual consent, leaving a single play-off match in Papua New Guinea.
    Team 1ResultTeam 2
    0–2

    Inter-continental play-off

    An inter-continental play-off was held between the second placed South American and African teams, which were and, respectively.
    The play-off was held as one match on Workers Stadium in Beijing on April 19, 2008. Brazil beat Ghana for the final spot in the Olympics.
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