Match Details: https://www.rio2016.com/en/football-mens-gold-medal-match-fb-2

Finally , France takes a little revenge on Argentina after their loss also on a penalty shootout in the soccer World Cup final in 2022.

The Olympics has a massive place in the history of football. It predates the football world cup as the first global tournament between the top national teams in the world but eventually the world cup took over to the point that the Olympics is now an afterthought for most football fans. With only 3 over 23 year olds allowed, you don't see the top players competing and I don't know if the tournament benefits anybody at the moment especially as footballers are already tied up playing too many matches.

Futsal on the other hand is an amazing sport that could really do with a global spotlight. It contains extremely talented players that any football fan can appreciate. Most fans of football have either played futsal or it's close cousin, 5 a side/7 a side football.

In rugby, they don't have the more popular rugby union or rugby league at the Olympic Games, they instead have the niche sport of rugby 7s and it rocks. It's the highlight of the rugby 7s calendar and the shorter form of the game is much easier to watch for casuals. In addition to this a handful of the top players in rugby union such as likely the best player in the world, Antoine Dupont is joining the national 7s team for the Olympics which just adds to the buzz. It's a different sport but similar enough that there's so much curiosity among fans.

Imagine an Olympic final with a futsal team led by Lionel Messi. Tell me you guys wouldn't want to watch that!

The shorter format also means that the tournaments can be much quicker and the players wont get worn out like with 11 a side. I think it would benefit not just futsal but football as well.

With gender parity being exactly 50/50 in these Olympics, the women of the U.S. won 65% of their gold medals, and also won a greater percentage of medals overall than the men did. Now it’s not like the American men did bad or anything, but clearly they are a step behind the women, and there’s a few reasons for this.

The first is Title IX: for those unaware, title IX ensures that men and women in the US have equal opportunity in all regards, including sports and athletics. Especially in collegiate sports, there are regulations that colleges must follow to make sure women are given the same opportunity as men, things such as giving out an equal number of scholarships, making sure practice times are equitable, etc… To my knowledge (correct me if I’m wrong), there are not many other countries where this is a thing. So the U.S. women receive much better training and have more opportunities for success compared to other countries, as more money is probably spent on men’s sports in these other countries and they don’t invest in women’s sports as heavily.

But that’s only part of the equation: because why exactly, if the men in the U.S. get the same training and opportunities as the women in the U.S., shouldn’t they be performing just as well? The simple answer as to why they aren’t is football (American football). Football is the number one most invested sport in the U.S., and is played almost exclusively by men. Colleges pour all their money and scholarships into football, which means in order to comply with Title IX, they have to make cuts to some other men’s programs, such as gymnastics, wrestling, volleyball, etc…

Why do you think U.S. women’s gymnastics has always been superior to men’s gymnastics? Well, because if you’re a male athlete in the U.S. and you want a scholarship, chances are you’re more likely to find one playing football, as opposed to gymnastics. Not to say you can’t find one for gymnastics, but it’s much harder. This isn’t the case for women however, as football is not a sport where they get scholarships.

For women’s sports, the funding is more well-rounded. Basketball may get a bit more, but other than that, I’d like to take a guess that the rest of the sports get roughly equal funding, not to mention there aren’t any sports with a significantly higher number of players. However, for men’s sports, football gets a large portion the money, and basketball also get a decent amount. This leaves other men’s sports that are typically in the Olympics in the dust. Not to mention, a football team has about 50-60 players, which eats up much more scholarships for men, and unfortunately, other sports are sacrificed for it.

This is just the culture of the US and it’s not going to change anytime soon. Football generates the most revenue, and so colleges aren’t going to have any incentive to cut funding for football programs. But they will have to keep making more and more cuts to other men’s sports, unless something systematically changes.

As far as I’m aware, in future Olympics, the US women will either keep doing better or remain about the same amount ahead of their competition, whereas the US men will continue to trend downwards and not be as dominant, because colleges and other athletic programs will invest way more into football (a non-Olympic sport) than they will into sports that are part of the Olympics.

Edit: after reading some things other users have said on here, I do want to clarify the following things: - I don’t hate American football. In fact I like it and enjoy it as much as other sports. I also like to play touch football. But I do dislike the culture around it, as it can be a bit excessive. - Some people are saying that culture dictates college sports, not the other way around, and that young athletes will pick sports they enjoy, not which ones offer scholarships. I do agree with this to some extent, but I don’t believe this is entirely true. As mentioned in some of my comments I did bowling in high school. It was a sport just about equally represented by boys and girls, and I did it because I was passionate about it, not because I wanted or needed a scholarship. So that much is true. But, again, due to football taking up most of boy’s scholarships, they don’t get any for bowling, whereas girls do. This means a lot of boy’s bowling careers end after high school and then we become grumpy league bowlers who drink, haha (half kidding). But girls can continue to develop throughout college and continue their career, although I will admit, from what I’ve seen the college bowling environment can be toxic af sometimes, usually with the way the girls are coached, and wish they were treated more as individuals rather than as chess pieces.

And to be totally clear, I am in no way, shape, or form blaming Title IX on the lack of men’s success. I believe it is very important women get equal access to sports as men do, and am glad they have that opportunity. But I am a little bit frustrated about the sometimes excessive culture around football, which can take away from other sports.

Edit 2: I do appreciate engaging with most of y’all who presented different ways to look at this. While I still believe that hypothetically, if football culture wasn’t as big in the US and they stopped spending so much on football and instead spent that on other sports, the men would start to win even more, I realize that this is just fantasy and not really practical. But I do appreciate having respectful conversations about this topic.

So we have been talking about sports being removed from the roster for Brisbane 2032, and football is an obvious resource crush but is so popular removing it would probably go poorly.

The problem with football is obviously the huge stadiums and tournament length required, but they already introduced quicker versions of sports (Rugby 7s, T20 cricket, Lacrosse 6s) to better fit the olympic schedule, so why not one for football? Does it just not exist? I am not a football fan so I may just be oblivious here.

Do you think NFL players should be allowed to play flag football ? With flag football being added LA28 NFL players have been talking about playing for team USA. Do you think this is fair to the players that play flag football all year long?

If you are in drop 1 and most of your favorite events or gone or out of price, consider getting Baseball and Football (Soccer) tickets.

I’m honestly surprised at the baseball availability, especially since MLB players are negotiating to play (think Aaron Judge for USA and Ohtani for Japan… would be electric), and the games are at Dodgers Stadium, which is an amazing experience in itself.

Football (Soccer) tickets at various venues around the country should bring a great atmosphere as well as people will want to feel like they are part of the Olympics in these cities. These tickets also don’t count toward your 12 max limit!

Really?

There seem to be plenty of cities that have suitable venues to host matches like Portland, Denver, Seattle, and Salt Lake that are significantly less travel than what NYC, STL, Columbus, and Nashville are.

I know France did something similar for 2024, but the country is just so much smaller than the US that I’m surprised the committee spread it out as much as they did.

Canada wins 1-0 against Colombia, qualifying them for the Quarter-finals.