The 1996 Men's Olympic Football Tournament, played as part of the 1996 Summer Olympics, was hosted in Birmingham, Alabama, Washington, D.C., Orlando, Florida, Miami, Florida and Athens, Georgia. From 1992 onwards, male competitors should be under 23 years old and starting from this tournament, a maximum of three over-23 players are allowed per squad. The tournament featured 16 national teams from the six continental confederations. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four and each group played a round-robin tournament. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams advanced to the knockout stage, beginning with the quarter-finals and culminating with the gold medal match at Sanford Stadium on August 3, 1996.

Competition schedule

The match schedule of the tournament.

Venues

Qualification

The following 16 teams qualified for the 1996 Olympic men's football tournament:

Match officials

Seeding

The draw for the tournament took place on 5 May 1996. The United States, Spain, Ghana and Brazil were seeded for the draw and placed into groups A–D, respectively. The remaining teams, excluding those from Europe, were drawn away from teams of the same region. 1 1996 CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament Champions, team not determined at time of draw. 2 CONCACAF–OFC play-off winner, team not determined at time of draw.

Squads

Group stage

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Knockout stage

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Bronze medal match

Gold medal match

Final ranking

Goalscorers

With six goals, Hernán Crespo of Argentina and Bebeto of Brazil are the top scorers of the tournament. In total, 90 goals were scored by 55 different players, with four of them credited as own goals.