On March 20, at 21:00 Kyiv time, the draw ceremony for the football tournaments of the 2024 Olympics will begin in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, at the headquarters of the capital of the Summer Games, Pulse, UNN reports.
It should be noted that the Ukrainian national team is also a participant in the competition among men. Last summer, having defeated France (3: 1) in the quarterfinal match of Euro 2023 (U-21) and won a ticket to the semifinals, our team achieved a historic success - won the right for the country to play in the football tournament of the Olympics for the first time. Along with Ukraine, the national teams of Spain and Israel received licenses for the 2024 Summer Games from Europe in this discipline through the youth Euro 2023.
As of today, 12 participants of the men's football tournament of the 2024 Olympic Games are already known, who will compete from July 24 to August 9 in seven cities of France: Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne, Nice and Nantes. The competition, according to the regulations, is open to players born after January 1, 2001. In addition, each team can enter three players who are older than this age.
A total of 16 teams will take part in the tournament: France as the host, three teams representing Europe (Ukraine, Spain, Israel), three from Africa (Morocco, Egypt, Mali), three from Asia (to be announced by May 3), two from South America (Paraguay, Argentina), two from the CONCACAF zone (USA, Dominican Republic), one from Oceania (New Zealand), and the winner of the playoffs between the fourth teams from Africa (Guinea) and Asia.
The format of the Olympic tournament is traditional: four groups of four teams compete, with the two strongest teams going to the playoffs, followed by quarterfinals, semifinals, a match for third place, and the final (August 9, Paris, Parc des Princes).
FIFA has unveiled the draw format and announced the composition of the baskets according to the participants' rankings. It consists of the sum of the points gained by a country (three for a victory in game time, one for a draw) in the last five Olympic football tournaments in the following proportions: 2020 - 100%, 2016 - 80%, 2012 - 60%, 2008 - 40%, 2004 - 20%. Five bonuses are also awarded to the title winners for this period. As the Asian qualifiers will end on May 3, AFC representatives received a rating of the confederation's teams for their performance at the last Summer Games, 2020 in Tokyo. The winner of the intercontinental playoffs went straight to the fourth basket. The debutant of the Olympic football tournament, Ukraine, will also be there.
The composition of the baskets before the draw of the men's football tournament of the 2024 Olympics
Cart 1
France
AFC-1
AFC-2
Argentina
Basket 2
Spain
New Zealand
Paraguay
Morocco
Basket 3
USA
Egypt
ROS-3
Small
Basket 4
Dominican Republic
Israel
Ukraine
Winner of the intercontinental playoffs
Quartets will be formed in order from basket 1 to basket 4. Representatives of the same confederation will not be placed in the same group. The same applies to the winner of the intercontinental playoffs.
It should be added that the current winner of the FIFA Men's World Cup is Brazil, which defeated Spain in the final in Tokyo 2020 (2:1). This time, it did not even qualify, taking third place in South America.
In preparation for the tournament, the Ukrainian Olympic team will hold a training camp in Szeged, Hungary, and a friendly match with Japan (March 25) in Fukuoka, Japan, from March 17 to 27 .