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 ...

was included in every three editions of International Workers' Summer Olympiads in 1925, 1931 and 1937 as a men's competition sport. Tournaments were played as a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

. Countries were represented by selected teams of their workers' sports associations and the players were mostly amateurs. Exception was the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

team in 1937 as it was based mostly on the team of masters of Spartak sports society out of Moscow and participating in the recently established in the Soviet Union competitions of football teams of sports societies, Class A, a predecessor of the

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (), served as the top division (tier) of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The league's name was a conditional designation used for brevity since being completely owned and g ...

Frankfurt am Main 1925

1925 Workers' Summer Olympiad The 1925 Workers' Summer Olympiad was the second edition of International Workers' Olympiads. The games were held from July 24 to July 28 at Frankfurt am Main in Germany. Total number of participants was more than 100,000 of which 3,000 were act ...

was held in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

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 ...

. Participating teams in the football tournament were

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

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

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 ...

.Helsingin Jyry: "Reino Fri - viimeinen mohikaani"
(in Finnish). Retrieved 13 July 2013.

Group stage

Semifinals

Final

Vienna 1931

1931 Workers' Summer Olympiad The 1931 Workers' Olympiad was the third edition of the International Workers' Olympiads. The games were held from 19 to 26 July in Vienna, Austria. Some 100,000 athletes participated in the Olympiad, including those taking part at the mass gym ...

was held in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and 16 teams took part at the football tournament.Christian Koller & Fabian Brändle: "Fussball zwischen den Kriegen: Europa 1918-1939" (p. 50-51, in German). Retrieved 13 July 2013. Leading scorer was

Erwin Seeler Erwin may refer to: People Given name * Erwin Chargaff (1905–2002), Austrian biochemist * Erwin Chemerinsky (born 1953), American legal scholar * Erwin Dold (1919–2012), German concentration camp commandant in World War 2 * Erwin Hauer (1926� ...

, the father of famous German striker

Uwe Seeler Uwe Seeler (; 5 November 1936 – 21 July 2022) was a German Association football, footballer and football official. As a Striker (association football), striker, he was a prolific scorer for Hamburger SV and also made 72 appearances for the Ger ...

. He scored seven goals on a quarterfinal match against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

as the German team beat the Hungarians 9–0.

First round

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

Consolation tournament

Antwerp 1937

1937 Workers' Summer Olympiad The 1937 Workers' Summer Olympiad was the sixth edition of International Workers' Olympiads. The games were held from 25 July to 1 August at Antwerp in Belgium. They were originally planned for Barcelona 1936, but cancelled due to the outbreak of ...

was held in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. It was a joint event with the

Spartakiads The Spartakiad (or Spartakiade) was an international sports event that was sponsored by the Soviet Union. Five international Spartakiades were held from 1928 to 1937. Later Spartakiads were organized as national sport events of the Eastern Bloc ...

. Participating teams came from

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, Spanish Republican faction and

.History of Ponnistus
(in Finnish). Retrieved 14 July 2013. A delegation from Soviet Union was competing at the Olympiads for the first time. German athletes did not participate since labor sports organisations were disbanded in Germany by the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

regime in 1933. The Soviet Union was represented by

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * ...

. Note: the results are not complete.

First round

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

Consolation tournament

Source: {{football box , date = July 1937 , team1 =

{{flagicon, England , score = 2–1 , report = , team2 = {{flagicon, Finland

, goals1 = , goals2 = , stadium =

, referee = , attendance =

Sources

RSSSF - Labour Olympiads

References

International Workers' Olympiads

International Workers' Olympiads International Workers' Olympiads were an international sporting event arranged between 1925 and 1937 by Socialist Workers' Sport International (SASI). It was an organisation supported by social democratic parties and International Federation of Tra ...

International Worker's Olympiads