The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board has approved seven venues for soccer, which will include the Tokyo Stadium, Sapporo Dome, Miyagi Stadium, Ibaraki Kashima Stadium, Saitama Stadium and the International Stadium Yokohoma, as well as Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium.
AFC qualifiers round one : http://www.womenssoccerunited.com/asian-qualifiers-round-1-draw-tokyo-2020/
Funny because both Oman and Yemen were originally listed as teams to participate. Then the draw happened and neither are listed.
Qualifiers so far: Host(1): Japan CONMEBOL(1.5): Brazil, (Chile) OFC(1): New Zealand UEFA(3): CONCACAF(2): AFC(2): CAF(1.5):
Three of the four WWC quarterfinals will see a UEFA team advance. If France defeats USA, that's four. UEFA has only 3 slots, so do the four go into a playoff, or will they just go by placement with the Final & third place match?
Just placement. If France beat the US, all four SFs need to register at least one more win (i.e. need to medal) to qualify for the OGs
Sweden qualifies Qualifiers so far: Host(1): Japan CONMEBOL(1.5): Brazil, (Chile) OFC(1): New Zealand UEFA(3): Great Britain, Netherlands, Sweden CONCACAF(2): AFC(2): CAF(1.5):
No word on CONCACAF's qualifying. For 2016, the Caribbean and Central America zones started their qualifiers in September 2015.
I don't know about the prelims, but the final AFC and CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournaments will be held between 13 Jan-9 Feb. Its already on the FIFA calendar.
FIFA reminder of qualified teams #DidYouKnow that 11 teams have already qualified for the men's and women's football tournaments at the @Olympics?👨: 🇫🇷🇩🇪🇯🇵🇷🇴🇪🇸👩: 🇧🇷🇬🇧🇯🇵🇳🇱🇳🇿🇸🇪#1YearToGo | @Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/fcHNrTftrg— FIFA (@FIFAcom) July 24, 2019
"North Korea will not compete in an Olympic women's football qualifying tournament scheduled for next February in South Korea, a source told Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday." (article in The Korean Herald) ...so it's a highway to Tokyo for the Winner of group B... Group phase 3rd - 9th Feb Group A Korea Republic (h) Vietnam Miyanmar Group B Australia China (h) Thailand Chinese Taipei Play-offs in March 6th Winner Group A vs. Runner-up Group B 11th Runner-up Group B vs. Winner Group A ------------------------------------------------------- 6th Winner Group B vs. Runner-up Group A 11th Runner-up Group A vs. Winner Group B
If you mind, I had kind of predicted that when North Korea decided to withdrew from EAFF E1 Championship. Oh, well, I guess isolationism is their new mantra (or better: a mantra they decided to cling to even more than in the past). A shame, because this is the moment when they could have probably reaped the rewards at Senior level of some of the very strong teams they recently had in youth tournaments. Also: it's almost 2020, so it makes sense to already open an Olympics general thread, although we're still quite some months away from the beginning of the tournament (and some of the continental qualifiers haven't even started yet).
It seems that it is because they do not want to play in South Korea. Unfair to the girls. The North Korean men's team, on the contrary, will be participating in the AFC Olympic eliminations, set off in Thailand next January
There are 5 topics in the 2016 folder that could me moved here, the ones with the qualifiers news and the general ones.
I see 6 threads in the 2016 sub-forum that could be moved into a 2020 sub-forum or out here, including another "2020 general discussion" thread (qualifiers, one on the Britain team, and the general discussion). Perhaps those can be moved and the two "general discussion" threads merged? I'll tag @soccernutter since he seems to be able to get things done over here.
@lil_one Just got back from vacation, but still have a long day tomorrow - if you can tag me in those threads, or send me a DM with the thread links, I'll take care of it either tomorrow or Sunday (I just got a promo to be Women's International all inclusive - and I'm still not getting paid ).
North Korea withdrew from 2 tournaments hosted by South Korea... go figure. "Why North Korea wants nothing to do with South Korea" (CNN) Football isn't low-hanging fruit, it's their biggest sport. The men's senior team is only ranked 116th and hasn't shut down, they play lots of games. Even if there's no crowd. (Sadly there was a security breach and this guy got in.) (Tasnim News, cc-by)
Nothing in particular, except providing a specific training opportunity vs other big teams in a short-tournament-setting for teams that will take part to the Olympic tournament, as the hosts (Japan), as already qualified (England, actually Great Britain in Tokyo) or as supposedly qualified at the time when SBC will take place (USA). Spain are there just as sparring partners, because they didn't qualify for the Olympics.
It's a "friendly" tournament. So something more that just "random training sessions" and there is no doubt that the National Teams involved will value the actual competition for the trophy. But it remains a set of friendly matches. And there is no direct tie with the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, except for the fact that playing such games can be seen as an excellent preparation for that tournament.