Football at the 1984 Summer Olympics
The association football (soccer) tournament at the 1984 Summer Olympics started on July 29 and ended on August 11, taking place throughout the United States. It was the first Olympic football competition in which officially professional players were allowed. Until then, the amateur-only rule had heavily favored socialist countries from the Eastern Bloc whose players were professionals in all but name. However, as agreed with FIFA to preserve the primacy of the World Cup, the Olympic competition was restricted to players with no more than five "A" caps at tournament start, regardless of age.
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | United States |
| Dates | July 29 – August 11, 1984 |
| Teams | 16 (from 5 confederations) |
| Venue(s) | 4 (in 4 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | France (1st title) |
| Runners-up | Brazil |
| Third place | Yugoslavia |
| Fourth place | Italy |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 32 |
| Goals scored | 84 (2.63 per match) |
| Attendance | 1,425,181 (44,537 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Borislav Cvetković Stjepan Deverić Daniel Xuereb (5 goals each) |
The soccer tournament was held in four venues:
- Harvard Stadium (Boston)
- Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium (Annapolis, Maryland)
- Stanford Stadium (Stanford, California)
- Rose Bowl (Pasadena, California)
The Gold medal game between France and Brazil at the Rose Bowl attracted an Olympic Games soccer attendance record of 101,799. Until 2014 this remained the record attendance for a soccer game in the United States. This broke the previous Olympics record attendance of 100,000 set at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia for the game of the 1956 Olympic Games played between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. The Rose Bowl attendance would remain the Olympic record until 104,098 attended the game of the 2000 Summer Olympics between Cameroon and Spain at the Stadium Australia in Sydney.
The attendance also stood as the highest for a soccer game in the United States until 109,318 saw Manchester United defeat Real Madrid during the 2014 International Champions Cup at the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.