The 2016 UEFA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament was an international football competition organised by

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

to determine the final women's national team from Europe to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics women's football tournament in Brazil. The tournament was played between 2 and 9 March 2016 in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Four teams participated in the tournament:

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

, Sweden and Switzerland. As the tournament winner, Sweden qualified for the last available Olympic spot from Europe, joining

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, who had already qualified, as the three UEFA representatives.

Background

Same as the qualification process for previous Olympics, UEFA used the FIFA Women's World Cup to determine which women's national teams from Europe qualify for the Olympic football tournament. The three teams from UEFA that progressed the furthest in the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...

played in Canada, other than ineligible England, would qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics women's football tournament in Brazil. If teams in contention for the Olympic spots were eliminated in the same round, ties were not broken by their overall tournament record, and play-offs or a mini-tournament to decide the spots would be held provisionally in February/March 2016.

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

were ineligible for the Olympics as they were not an Olympic nation, although

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

did compete in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

as the host nation.

The Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...

had originally declared on 2 March 2015 its intention to enter and run teams on behalf of the

British Olympic Association The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, at both ...

at the 2016 Olympics should England qualify. Following strong objections from the Scottish, Welsh and

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

football associations, and a commitment from FIFA that they would not allow entry of a British team unless all four Home Nations agreed, the Football Association announced on 30 March 2015 that they would not seek entry into the Olympic tournament. After

were eliminated by

in the round of 16 on 22 June 2015, it was confirmed that two of the three spots would go to quarter-finalists

and

because there could not be more than three eligible European teams in the quarter-finals. Eventually no other eligible European team reached the quarter-finals, so the four European teams eliminated in the round of 16 (

, Sweden and Switzerland) would compete in the UEFA play-off tournament to decide the last spot. The last time a play-off was necessary to decide a European spot in the Olympic women's football tournament was when Sweden defeated

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

over two legs to claim a place in the 2008 Olympics. Same as this time, had England been eligible to enter, they would have qualified as one of the top three UEFA teams in the

2007 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international association football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but th ...

, rendering the play-off unnecessary.

Teams

Among the four teams, only Norway and Sweden had previously played in the Olympics. Norway had played in three Olympics, and were the only European gold medalists so far, winning in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, and also taking bronze in 1996. Sweden had played in all five Olympics so far, but never won a medal, with their best finish being fourth in 2004.

Format

UEFA confirmed on 24 June 2015 to the Norwegian newspaper ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...

'' that the four teams would meet each other once, making it a mini-tournament with six matches altogether. With three points for a win and one for a draw, the top team after the six matches would qualify for the Olympics. The period reserved for this playoff tournament was the FIFA women's international match date from 29 February to 9 March 2016. The four teams concerned would need to agree on the exact dates within this window. The tournament would be arranged in one of the four countries involved. On 22 July 2015 UEFA announced that the Netherlands would host the mini-tournament, with matches taking place between 2 and 9 March 2016.

Venues

2016 UEFA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament NED-SUI

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

and

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

were confirmed as host cities by the

Royal Dutch Football Association The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch Netherlands nati ...

(KNVB) on 19 October 2015.

Standings

Matches

:''All times

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(

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).'' ---- ----

Goalscorers

;2 goals * Manon Melis *

Vivianne Miedema Anna Margaretha Marina Astrid "Vivianne" Miedema (; born 15 July 1996) is a Dutch professional association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for FA Women's Super League (FA WSL) club Arsenal W.F.C., Arse ...

Ada Hegerberg Ada Martine Stolsmo Hegerberg (born 10 July 1995) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a striker for the Division 1 Féminine club Lyon and the Norway national team. Hegerberg has represented Norway at the youth international l ...

* Rahel Kiwic ;1 goal * Mandy van den Berg * Shanice van de Sanden *

Emilie Haavi Emilie Bosshard Haavi (born 16 June 1992) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a left midfielder who plays for Italian Serie A club AS Roma and the Norway women's national team. Haavi was according to Fjordabladet, elected ''P ...

* Caroline Graham Hansen *

Maren Mjelde Maren Nævdal Mjelde (born 6 November 1989) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a defender or midfielder for Chelsea and captains the Norway national team. She previously played for Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC of the Swedish Da ...

* Lisa Dahlkvist * Olivia Schough *

Caroline Seger Sara Caroline Seger (born 19 March 1985) is a Swedish footballer who plays as a midfielder and club captain for FC Rosengård in the Damallsvenskan league. She is the current captain of the Swedish national football team. Club career Linköp ...

* Ramona Bachmann *

Fabienne Humm Fabienne Valérie Humm (born 20 December 1986) is a Swiss football forward, playing for FC Zürich of Switzerland's Nationalliga A. Since her debut in May 2012, a 1–0 win over Ireland, she has been a member of the Switzerland national team. ...

* Sandrine Mauron

Qualified teams for Olympics

After the conclusion of the qualifying tournament, the following three teams from UEFA qualified for the Olympic football tournament. :

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. ''Italic'' indicates host for that year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2016 Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2016 in women's association football

Uefa Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

March 2016 sports events in Europe 2016 Uefa Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2015–16 in Dutch football 2016 in Norwegian football 2016 in Swedish football 2015–16 in Swiss football Olympic qualifying