# Football at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's qualification

Eight teams competed in the women's football tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics. In addition to the host nation, the United States, seven other teams qualified for the tournament based on the results from the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup.

## Method

Unlike the men's competition, there was no fixed slot allocation for the women's tournament. Instead, the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup would be used as the preliminary competition to qualify teams for the inaugural women's Olympic football tournament, which featured eight teams. The United States automatically qualified for the tournament as hosts, leaving seven spots to be determined by the Women's World Cup. Teams were ranked based on their results in the tournament, with the top seven teams in the ranking qualifying for the Olympics (excluding the United States and England, a non-IOC member).

## 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup
### Qualification

Twelve teams qualified for the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup in Sweden based on a fixed slot allocation.
| Confederation | Slots | Tournament | Teams qualified |
| AFC (Asia) | 2 | Football at the 1994 Asian Games – Women's tournament | China Japan |
| CAF (Africa) | 1 | 1995 African Women's Championship | Nigeria |
| CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean) | 2 | 1994 CONCACAF Women's Championship | Canada United States |
| CONMEBOL (South America) | 1 | 1995 South American Women's Football Championship | Brazil |
| OFC (Oceania) | 1 | 1994 OFC Women's Championship | Australia |
| UEFA (Europe) | 5 | Host country | Sweden |
| UEFA (Europe) | 5 | UEFA Women's Euro 1995 | Denmark England Germany Norway |

### Group stage

| Group A | Group B | Group C |
| Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1  Germany 3 6 2  Sweden (H) 3 6 3  Japan 3 3 4  Brazil 3 3 Source: FIFA (H) Hosts | Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1  Norway 3 9 2  England 3 6 3  Canada 3 1 4  Nigeria 3 1 Source: FIFA | Pos Teamvte Pld Pts 1  United States 3 7 2  China 3 7 3  Denmark 3 3 4  Australia 3 0 Source: FIFA |
Ranking of third-placed teams
| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | Pts |
| 1 | Denmark | 3 | 3 |
| 2 | Japan | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | Canada | 3 | 1 |

### Knockout stage

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | | Final | Final |
| 13 June – Västerås | 13 June – Västerås | | | |
| Germany | 3 | | | |
| Germany | 3 | 15 June – Helsingborg | 15 June – Helsingborg | | |
| England | 0 | 15 June – Helsingborg | 15 June – Helsingborg | |
| England | 0 | Germany | 1 | |
| 13 June – Helsingborg | 13 June – Helsingborg | | Germany | 1 | |
| 13 June – Helsingborg | 13 June – Helsingborg | China | 0 | |
| Sweden | 1 (3) | China | 0 | |
| Sweden | 1 (3) | | | | 18 June – Solna | 18 June – Solna |
| China (p) | 1 (4) | | | | 18 June – Solna | 18 June – Solna |
| China (p) | 1 (4) | | | | Germany | 0 |
| 13 June – Gävle | 13 June – Gävle | | | | | Germany | 0 |
| 13 June – Gävle | 13 June – Gävle | | | | Norway | 2 |
| Japan | 0 | | | | Norway | 2 |
| Japan | 0 | 15 June – Västerås | 15 June – Västerås | | | |
| United States | 4 | 15 June – Västerås | 15 June – Västerås | | | |
| United States | 4 | United States | 0 | | | |
| 13 June – Karlstad | 13 June – Karlstad | | United States | 0 | | | |
| 13 June – Karlstad | 13 June – Karlstad | Norway | 1 | | Third place play-off | Third place play-off |
| Norway | 3 | Norway | 1 | | Third place play-off | Third place play-off |
| Norway | 3 | | | | 17 June – Gävle | 17 June – Gävle |
| Denmark | 1 | | | | 17 June – Gävle | 17 June – Gävle |
| Denmark | 1 | | | | China | 0 |
| | | | | | United States | 2 |

## Ranking of teams

Teams were ranked by the round/place which they reached, and then by points, goal difference and goals scored. Teams eliminated in the quarter-finals are ranked by their quarter-final goal differential. Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
| Pos | Grp | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | B | Norway | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 1 | +22 | 18 | Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics |
| 2 | A | Germany | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 12 | Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics |
| 3 | C | United States | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 5 | +10 | 13 | Automatically qualified (host) |
| 4 | C | China | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 10 | +1 | 8 | Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics |
| 5 | A | Sweden | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 7 | Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics |
| 6 | C | Denmark | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 8 | −1 | 3 | Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics |
| 7 | B | England | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 9 | −3 | 6 | Ineligible (not an IOC member) |
| 8 | A | Japan | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 8 | −6 | 3 | Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics |
| 9 | A | Brazil | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 8 | −5 | 3 | Qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics |
| 10 | B | Canada | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 13 | −8 | 1 | |
| 11 | B | Nigeria | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 14 | −9 | 1 | |
| 12 | C | Australia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 13 | −10 | 0 | |

## Qualified teams

| Team | Confederation | Qualified as | Qualified on |
| United States | CONCACAF | Host | 18 September 1993 |
| Norway | UEFA | Women's World Cup winner | 9 June 1995 |
| Germany | UEFA | Women's World Cup runner-up | 9 June 1995 |
| China | AFC | Women's World Cup fourth-place | 9 June 1995 |
| Sweden | UEFA | Women's World Cup fifth-place | 9 June 1995 |
| Denmark | UEFA | Women's World Cup sixth-place | 10 June 1995 |
| Japan | AFC | Women's World Cup eighth-place | 10 June 1995 |
| Brazil | CONMEBOL | Women's World Cup ninth-place | 10 June 1995 |

### Breakdown by confederation

No teams from Africa (CAF) or Oceania (OFC) managed to qualify for the Olympic tournament.
| Confederation | Teams qualified |
| AFC | 2 |
| CAF | 0 |
| CONCACAF | 1 |
| CONMEBOL | 1 |
| OFC | 0 |
| UEFA | 4 |