London 2012: Men's Olympic Football Tournament [R for ALL results]

Syria all the way man

 

Spain

 

To confuse everyone the UK participates at the Olympics as "Great Britain", despite it being the UK.

 

Also, only about a quarter of the games are being held in London. The rest are spread around Britain, including Scotland and Wales.

 

To add to the reason for the GB name instead of Team UK. Both terms can be said as incorrect as some members of the team are not part of the United Kingdom or Great Britain in the traditional sense.

Jersey in the Channel Islands for example, is not part of the United Kingdom but is tied to the British Crown. Hence, the geographical and historical term of Great Britain for the Olympic team would be the better of the two terms.

This can also be said of other territories outside of the United Kingdom that still have relationship with the British Crown and is recognised as such by the IOC.

 

It will depend on the squads. In the past Olympics, not all the teams could call up their best players due club committment, etc. This time, however, the Olympics will be held in a country where a lot of the players are playing for club football. Some clubs did not want their players to play in Sydney, Athens or Beijing. It might be different if the players are playing in the host country. Let's say it would be bad PR in London if Chelsea complain about David Luiz, Ramires or Mata "going" to the London Olympics.

This is also the first Olympics held in a major soccer power since Barcelona 1992. Team GB is the first host country that isn't considered to be an outsider. They probably won't have Smalling, Walcott, Wilshere, Welbeck , Richards, Wilshere, etc, but McEachran, Ramsy, Bale and a few quality overaged players will form a good team.

 

I think it is brazil.

 

These Olympics will also start in July which should help reduce the # of club conflicts. The Beijing Olympics ran until late August.

Anyway, I think the women's tournament will be more interesting than the men's. Too many crappy teams in the men's tournament. It is no wonder that football is the only sport at the 2012 Olympics which hasn't sold-out yet. And I doubt that it will ever sell-out. $80 per ticket to watch Gabon U23 v Uzbekistan U23? No thanks.

 

I agree, EPL clubs will kick up a huge fuss about player selection, with the whole tournament becoming a event for the Beckham hype machine. Interest for tickets will grow as the tournament draws nearer, but quite a few games will remain non events.

I personally don't understand why Futsal or Beach Soccer aren't part of the Olympic games .

 

Are they really the prices? Only £10 to watch the final qualifier in Coventry between Senegal and AFC rep (possibly Uzbekistan).

 

$80 a ticket is the top price band at Wembley (£60).

I have Category B tickets for a 1st round double-header at Wembley for £45.
Category C & D are £30 and £20, and that's still for two matches, one of which will be for the GB team.

Elsewhere tickets are cheaper in the £20 / £30 /£40 range.

 

I don't think they are so bad for seeing double headers and for seeing some nations that some people won't even know where they're on a map.

RichardL - Country Cambodia? You still there or just love the country?

 

£20 wouldn't get you into some 4th tier games here, so it's good value

Been back for ages now, but just haven't bothered changing my profile. Besides, they need all the support they can get.

 

Aha, so i guess you will be going to the playoff match in Coventry. They do need all the support possible!!

 

Using the 2007 fifa under 20 world cup ( which I drove to Canada for) as a reference (a fair comparison IMO), Olympics still seem overpriced. I paid $25 for a double-header category "A" ticket involving Brazil and Argentina.
Considering the Olympic matches are going head to head with some big events (e.g. Mens 100-meter dash) and on the heals of a Euro, the IOC were dreaming when they thought they could sell-out at these prices.

 

It's hard to compare, we have moved on 5 years since that competition to an event that the world take notice of - I can't say the world take notice of FIFA U20 world cup - I do, but I think the English public see Olympics as bigger.

Also, 2007 in Canada, hardly a footballing hotbed, 2012 in UK, more of a hotbed and I would have fought the prices are about right.

Now, they are about right for UK games, but for the games showcasing nations from outside of the regular norm, then I do guess prices should be lower. Buit lets remember, tickets are on sale now, way before the draw has ever been done. It's a lottery.

A World Cup is a good lottery, there's probably only 5% chance of buying a ticket for the worse game, but Olympics, no one knows the Under 23 aged players so how can you sell that to the public? You can't, you are selling to the knowledgeable football fan.

Of course, the game are also aimed at the public of the games, so they are aimed at the English, and the price seems resonable to the English, but I guess people driving from the outside (France, Holland etc) might be shocked.

 

Ticket prices are in line with all other Olympic events. Archery, for example, is also priced at £20/£30/£45/£60

The games that aren't played at Wembley are cheaper, at £20/£30/£40.

No games are played the same day as the 100m final. The group games are all finished before the athletics starts.

While there are a lot of tickets unsold, I'd imagine the vast bulk of them are for the women's tournament. Women's football gets terrible crowds here, and they have been better off using smaller grounds. Using a venue like Leyton Orient's Brisbane Road would have been ideal, being just a few hundred metres north of the Olympic Park.

It is anticipated that more tickets will be sold once the draw has been made.

 

For some matches, sure. For others, I can see sales rates decline or even stall after the draw. I mean its only logical. At least if I get tickets today for, say, Match #8 there's a chance it will involve Brazil or Spain. Once I know for sure that it's U.A.E. v Gabon, the ticket just became a lot less attractive.

As mentioned, a lot of crap teams have qualified in both the men's and women's tournaments. Many people might not even be aware of that yet. However, once the draw is made, there is no hiding from that fact.

 

A lot of crap teams have qualified? So that means some seriously crap teams didn't qualfiy. Suits me.

 

Well, you're assuming that an unseeded knockout round does a great job of determining the best teams (e.g. Netherlands did better than Spain in the group-stage but then lost 1 KO game and missed out).

But when I say "crap" what I mean is unappealing. Whether they're better or not, Germany and the Netherlands would've been an easier sell than Belarus and Switzerland. Then to top it off, CAF and AFC each receive more Olympic qualifying berths than Europe. So what we are left with is a highly unappealing field of 16 teams.

 

At the moment the sales rates are zero, as you can't buy tickets, so even for the crappiest games, rates can only increase.


Looking at previous tournaments, for the first two rounds of group games, you see both games from that group in the one venue, so there won't be any games that are just Gabon v Uzbekistan. You'd see a match between two top seeds as well.

 

Okay Gabon v Uzbek followed by Mexico v Belarus.

But maybe you're right. Nothing is over-hyped more than the summer Olympic games, so even with qualifying results not helping in terms of making this tournament an easy sell, it might still sell-out anyway.

 

I can't imagine anyone will turn down playing in Euro 2012 in favour of the Olympics, but they aren't on at the same time anyway.


As for unattractive fixtures, assuming they are going with the same system of seeing both games from one group per day in each stadium, fixtures should be decent. The opening double-headers in 2008 were...

Australia v Serbia & Argentia v Ivory Coast

Japan v USA & Holland v Nigeria

Brazil v Belgium & China v New Zealand

Honduras v Italy & South Korea v Cameroon

I would guess Brazil, Spain, GB and Uruguay will be top seeds, so any group double-header should involve one of them.