Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics
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The association football tournament at the 1956 Summer Olympics was won by the Soviet Union.[2][3]
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | Australia |
| Dates | 24 November – 8 December 1956 |
| Teams | 11 |
| Venue | 2 (in 1 host city) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Soviet Union (1st title) |
| Runners-up |  Yugoslavia |
| Third place |  Bulgaria |
| Fourth place |  India |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 12 |
| Goals scored | 53 (4.42 per match) |
| Attendance | 194,333 (16,194 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Neville D'Souza Todor Veselinović Dimitar Milanov (4 goals each)[1] |
← 1952 1960 → | |
Defending champions Hungary were forced to withdraw due to the Soviet invasion of their country. Besides Hungary, the tournament was ignored by Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. In addition to the situation with Hungary, several more countries boycotted the competitions due to the Suez Crisis, while China ignored the tournament due to the IOC recognition of Taiwan.
This was the first Olympic football tournament where all the medalists were communist countries, with Yugoslavia and Bulgaria taking silver and bronze respectively.[citation needed]
Background
Following five withdrawals, the tournament featured three Eastern Bloc teams and four from Asia. The other sides included in the draw were the United States, the United Team of Germany (which was de facto West Germany), Great Britain and the hosts Australia, competing in their first Olympic football tournament.[citation needed]
The tendency of Eastern bloc countries to provide state-funding for their athletes put Western amateurs at a significant disadvantage. As a result, all Olympic football tournaments 1952 onwards were dominated by the Soviet Union and its satellites.[4][5]
Venues
| Melbourne | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Park Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground | |||
| Capacity: 40,000 | Capacity: 104,000 | |||
 |
 | |||
Teams
Qualification
Australia (20)
Bulgaria (15)
United Team of Germany (15)
Great Britain (16)
India (18)
Indonesia (20)
Japan (18)
Soviet Union (20)
Thailand (13)
United States (16)
Yugoslavia (17)
Squads
First round
Hungary announced their withdrawal on 31 August, a day before the draw.[6] The draw was made with fifteen teams, India receiving a bye.[7] Four more teams withdrew after the final draw: China (boycotted the Games to protest the reception of Taiwan), Egypt (withdrew due to Suez Crisis), Turkey and Vietnam.
Therefore, only three games were played in the first round: as China and Turkey had been drawn against each other, their match was scratched.
The Soviet Union defeated the United Team of Germany 2–1, Great Britain defeated Thailand 9–0, and Australia defeated Japan 2–0.
| Soviet Union | 2–1 |  United Team of Germany |
|---|---|---|
Isayev  23' Streltsov 86' |
Report | Habig 89' |
Byes: Bulgaria (drawn against Egypt, who withdrew), India, Indonesia (drawn against Vietnam, who withdrew), USA and Yugoslavia (drawn against each other: match was postponed to the quarter-finals).
Quarter-finals
Yugoslavia defeated the United States 9–1.
Bulgaria led Great Britain 3–1 at half-time, when ratings from HMS Newcastle vaulted the fence and exhorted the team to show more grit, after which they were peacefully escorted off the field. The British team went on to lose 6–1.[8]
The Soviet Union drew their game against Indonesia 0–0 and won 4–0 in the replay.
The Indians defeated Australia 4–2 with a hat trick by centre forward Neville D'Souza, the first by an Asian in the Olympics. Prior to the game there had been debate, once again, as to whether the Indians should be shod. Sir Stanley Rous respected their decision either way, although in the end, the Indians decided to wear boots.
| Yugoslavia | 9–1 |  United States |
|---|---|---|
| Veselinović 10', 84', 90' Antić 12', 73' Mujić 16', 35', 56' Papec 20' |
Report | Zerhusen 42' |
| Soviet Union | 0–0 (a.e.t.) |  Indonesia |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
Semi-finals
Yugoslavia defeated India 4–1. It would be their third consecutive Olympic final, after losing both in 1948 and 1952.
The Soviets defeated Bulgaria 2–1. Normal time finished 0–0, and Bulgaria scored first in extra time before conceding two goals in the last six minutes of the game.
| Yugoslavia | 4–1 | India |
|---|---|---|
| Papec 54', 65' Veselinović 57' Salam 78' (o.g.) |
Report | D'Souza 52' |
Bronze medal match
Bulgaria took Bronze defeating India 3–0.
Gold medal match
| Soviet Union | 1–0 | Yugoslavia |
|---|---|---|
| Ilyin 48' |
Report |
| Team details | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Bracket
| First round | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | |||||||||||
| Yugoslavia |
||||||||||||||
| November – Olympic Park | ||||||||||||||
| bye | ||||||||||||||
| Yugoslavia |
9 | |||||||||||||
 United States |
1 | |||||||||||||
| United States |
||||||||||||||
| December – MCG | ||||||||||||||
| bye | ||||||||||||||
| Yugoslavia |
4 | |||||||||||||
| November | ||||||||||||||
| India |
1 | |||||||||||||
 Australia |
2 | |||||||||||||
| December – MCG | ||||||||||||||
 Japan |
0 | |||||||||||||
| Australia |
2 | |||||||||||||
| India |
4 | |||||||||||||
| India |
||||||||||||||
| December – MCG | ||||||||||||||
| bye | ||||||||||||||
| Yugoslavia |
0 | |||||||||||||
| Soviet Union |
1 | |||||||||||||
| Indonesia |
||||||||||||||
| December – Olympic Park | ||||||||||||||
| bye | ||||||||||||||
| Indonesia |
0 | |||||||||||||
| November | ||||||||||||||
| Soviet Union |
4(tb) | |||||||||||||
| Soviet Union |
2 | |||||||||||||
| December – Olympic Park | ||||||||||||||
| United Team of Germany |
1 | |||||||||||||
| Soviet Union (a.e.t.) |
2 | |||||||||||||
| Bulgaria |
1 | |||||||||||||
| Bulgaria |
||||||||||||||
| December – MCG | ||||||||||||||
| bye | ||||||||||||||
| Bulgaria |
6 | |||||||||||||
| November | December – MCG | |||||||||||||
 Great Britain |
1 | |||||||||||||
| Great Britain |
9 | India |
0 | |||||||||||
 Thailand |
0 | Bulgaria |
3 | |||||||||||
Goalscorers
There were 53 goals scored in 12 matches, for an average of 4.42 goals per match.
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
Medalists
| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|
| Soviet Union |
Yugoslavia |
Bulgaria |
| Lev Yashin Nikolai Tishchenko Mikhail Ogonkov Aleksei Paramonov Anatoli Bashashkin Igor Netto Boris Tatushin Anatoli Isayev Eduard Streltsov Valentin Ivanov Vladimir Ryzhkin Boris Kuznetsov Iosif Betsa Sergei Salnikov Boris Razinsky Anatoli Maslenkin Anatoli Ilyin Nikita Simonyan Yury Belyayev Anatoli Porkhunov |
Sava Antić Ibrahim Biogradlić Mladen Koščak Dobroslav Krstić Luka Liposinović Muhamed Mujić Zlatko Papec Petar Radenković Nikola Radović Ivan Santek Dragoslav Šekularac Ljubiša Spajić Todor Veselinović Blagoja Vidinić |
Stefan Bozhkov Todor Diev Georgi Dimitrov Milcho Goranov Ivan Petkov Kolev Nikola Kovachev Manol Manolov Dimitar Milanov Georgi Naydenov Panayot Panayotov Kiril Rakarov Gavril Stoyanov Krum Yanev Yordan Yosifov Pavel Vladimirov Iliya Kirchev |
