The 1996 CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament was the ninth edition of the CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

tournament organized by

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

to determine which men's under-23 national teams from the North, Central America and Caribbean region qualify for the Olympic football tournament. It was held in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, from 10 and 19 May 1996. It was the first time in which teams that qualified for the Olympics were permitted to supplement their rosters with three players not restricted by age in its 18-man final list. Mexico, as winners qualified for the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

together with the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

who automatically qualified as hosts. Second-placed

later lost to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in the CONCACAF–OFC play-off and failed to qualify for the Olympics for the third consecutive time.

Qualification

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament. :

¹ Only final tournament.

Venues

The matches were played in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Squads

Final round

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Statistics

Goalscorers

Qualified teams for Summer Olympics

The following two teams from CONCACAF qualified for the

, including the United States which qualified as hosts. :

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

References

External links

RSSSF.com – Games of the XXVI. Olympiad , Football Qualifying Tournament
{{International association football competitions hosted by Canada

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament Oly Football qualification for the 1996 Summer Olympics