Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Background

Following five withdrawals, the tournament featured three Eastern Bloc teams and four from Asia. The other sides included in the draw were the United States, the United Team of Germany (which was de facto West Germany), Great Britain and the hosts Australia, competing in their first Olympic football tournament.

The tendency of Eastern bloc countries to provide state-funding for their athletes put Western amateurs at a significant disadvantage. As a result, all Olympic football tournaments 1952 onwards were dominated by the Soviet Union and its satellites.

Venues

Teams

Qualification

Main article: Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification

• AUS
• BUL
• EUA
• GBR
• IND
• INA
• JPN
• URS
• THA
• USA
• YUG

Squads

Main article: Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's team squads

First round

Hungary announced their withdrawal on 31 August, a day before the draw. The draw was made with fifteen teams, India receiving a bye. Four more teams withdrew after the final draw: China (boycotted the Games to protest the reception of Taiwan), Egypt (withdrew due to Suez Crisis), Turkey and Vietnam.

Therefore, only three games were played in the first round: as China and Turkey had been drawn against each other, their match was scratched.

The Soviet Union defeated the United Team of Germany 2–1, Great Britain defeated Thailand 9–0, and Australia defeated Japan 2–0.

Streltsov

Lewis
Laybourne
Bromilow
Topp

Loughran

Byes: Bulgaria (drawn against Egypt, who withdrew), India, Indonesia (drawn against Vietnam, who withdrew), USA and Yugoslavia (drawn against each other: match was postponed to the quarter-finals).

Quarter-finals

Yugoslavia defeated the United States 9–1.

Bulgaria led Great Britain 3–1 at half-time, when ratings from vaulted the fence and exhorted the team to show more grit, after which they were peacefully escorted off the field. The British team went on to lose 6–1.

The Soviet Union drew their game against Indonesia 0–0 and won 4–0 in the replay.

The Indians defeated Australia 4–2 with a hat trick by centre forward Neville D'Souza, the first by an Asian in the Olympics. Prior to the game there had been debate, once again, as to whether the Indians should be shod. Sir Stanley Rous respected their decision either way, although in the end, the Indians decided to wear boots.

Antić
Mujić
Papec

Ivanov
Netto

Kolev
Milanov

Kittu

Semi-finals

Yugoslavia defeated India 4–1. It would be their third consecutive Olympic final, after losing both in 1948 and 1952.

The Soviets defeated Bulgaria 2–1. Normal time finished 0–0, and Bulgaria scored first in extra time before conceding two goals in the last six minutes of the game.

Veselinović
Salam

Tatushin

Bronze medal match

Bulgaria took Bronze defeating India 3–0.

Milanov

Gold medal match

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Bracket

|| **** || bye | || **** || bye | |November||2||0 || **** || bye | || **** || bye | |November||2||1 || **** || bye | |November||9||0 |November – Olympic Park||9||1 |December – MCG||2||4 |December – Olympic Park||0||4(tb) |December – MCG||6||1 |December – MCG||4||1 |December – Olympic Park|**** |2||1 |December – MCG||0||1 |December – MCG||0||3

Goalscorers

• Neville D'Souza

• Todor Veselinović

• Dimitar Milanov

• Ivan Petkov Kolev

• Jack Laybourne

• Muhamed Mujić

• Zlatko Papec

• Bruce Morrow

• Todor Diev

• George Bromilow

• Jim Lewis

• Charlie Twissell

• Sergei Salnikov

• Eduard Streltsov

• Sava Antić

• Frank Loughran

• Graham McMillan

• Georgi Dimitrov

• Ernst-Günter Habig

• Laurie Topp

• Kittu

• Anatoli Ilyin

• Anatoli Isayev

• Valentin Ivanov

• Igor Netto

• Boris Tatushin

• Al Zerhusen

• Muhamed Abdus Salam

Medalists

References

References

1. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140104222853/http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/mensolympic/melbourne1956/statistics/players/topgoals.html Olympic Football Tournament Melbourne 1956 – Top goalscoring players]. [[FIFA]].com
2. "Football at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games". Sports Reference.
3. Esamie, Thomas (sources: ''[[Sydney Morning Herald]]''; personal records of Alan Garside Snr). (25 October 1999). "Games of the XVI. Olympiad: Football Tournament (Melbourne, Australia, 24th November – 8th December 1956)".
4. "Australian Online Soccer Museum".
5. [https://memoriasdelfutbol.com/futbol-juegos-olimpicos-historia-2/ Fútbol en los Juegos Olímpicos]{{Webarchive. link. (5 September 2021 by José M. Martín, 8 August 2021)
6. [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/164365835/ Hungarian Eleven not entering], [[The Guardian]], 1 September 1956
7. [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/164365056 It's Britain v Thailand in Olympics], Birmingham Evening Mail, 1 September 1956
8. "News .....taken from "The Socceroos and their Opponents" by Laurie Schwab". Australian Soccer Preservation Society.