The 2016 UEFA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament was an international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

competition organised by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

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 , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Four teams participated in the tournament:

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. 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 located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, 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 The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

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 f ...

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 Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

did compete in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

as the host nation.

The Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

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 represents the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), but also incorporate represen ...

at the 2016 Olympics should England qualify. Following strong objections from the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

, Welsh and

Northern Irish The people of Northern Ireland are all people born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of their birth, at least one parent who is a British Nationality Law, British citizen, an Irish nationality law, Irish citizen or is otherwis ...

football associations, and a commitment from

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

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 (

and

) 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

defeated

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

over two legs to claim a place in the

2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

. 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 football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but the outbreak o ...

, 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 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, and also taking bronze in

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 ...

. Sweden had played in all five Olympics so far, but never won a medal, with their best finish being fourth in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Format

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

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'' that the four teams would meet each other once, making it a last chance round robin tournament with six matches altogether. The rules of the UEFA and FIFA tournaments were maintained. A victory would win 3 points, a draw would win 1 point, and the Olympic would go to the team that finished at the first place after the end of six games. The period reserved for this playoff tournament was also the FIFA women's international matches period 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 participating four countries. On 22 July 2015 UEFA announced that the Netherlands would host the tournament, with matches taking place between 2 and 9 March 2016.

Venues

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

and

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

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 men's and w ...

(KNVB) on 19 October 2015.

Standings

Matches

:''All times

CET CET or cet may refer to: Places * Cet, Albania * Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus * Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England Arts, entertainment, and media * Comcast En ...

(

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

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

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, Women's Super League club Manches ...

* Ada Hegerberg * 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 an attacking midfielder or winger for Italian Serie A club AS Roma and the Norway women's national team. Haavi was according to Fjordabladet, elect ...

Caroline Graham Hansen Caroline Graham Hansen (; born 18 February 1995) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a Midfielder#Winger, winger for Spanish Liga F club FC Barcelona Femení, FC Barcelona and the Norway women's national football team, Norway w ...

* Maren Mjelde *

Lisa Dahlkvist Lisa Karolina Viktoria Dahlkvist (born 6 February 1987) is a Swedish former professional Association football, footballer who played as midfielder. She previously played in the Swedish Damallsvenskan for Umeå IK, Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC, Tyresö ...

* Olivia Schough *

Caroline Seger Sara Caroline Seger (born 19 March 1985) is a Swedish former Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder and club captain for Damallsvenskan club FC Rosengård. She was the long-standing captain of the Sweden women's national foo ...

* Ramona Bachmann *

Fabienne Humm Fabienne Valérie Humm (born 20 December 1986) is a Swiss former women's soccer, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Since her debut in May 2012, she's also a member of the Switzerland women's national football te ...

* 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

Uefa The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

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