| 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'SouzaTodor VeselinovićDimitar Milanov (4 goals each)[1] |
←1952 1960 → | |
Theassociation football tournament at the1956 Summer Olympics was won by theSoviet Union.[2][3]
Defending championsHungary were forced to withdraw due to theSoviet invasion of their country. This was the first Olympic football tournament where all the medalists werecommunist countries, withYugoslavia andBulgaria took silver and bronze respectively.[citation needed]
Following five withdrawals, the tournament featured threeEastern Bloc teams and four fromAsia. The other sides included in the draw were theUnited States, theUnited Team of Germany (which wasde facto West Germany),Great Britain and the hostsAustralia, 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]
| Melbourne | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Park Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground | |||
| Capacity:40,000 | Capacity:104,000 | |||
 |  | |||
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)
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 ofTaiwan), Egypt (withdrew due toSuez 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' |
Great Britain  | 9–0 | Thailand |
|---|---|---|
| Twissell 12',20' Lewis 21' (pen.)Laybourne 30',82',85'Bromilow 75',78'Topp 90' | Report |
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).
Yugoslavia defeated theUnited States 9–1.
Bulgaria led Great Britain 3–1 at half-time, whenratings fromHMS 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]
TheSoviet Union drew their game againstIndonesia 0–0 and won 4–0 in the replay.
The Indians defeated Australia 4–2 with a hat trick by centre forwardNeville 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' |
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' |
Bulgaria took Bronze defeating India 3–0.
| Soviet Union | 1–0 | Yugoslavia |
|---|---|---|
| Ilyin 48' | Report |
| Team details | ||
|---|---|---|
|
| 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 | |||||||||||
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
| 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 |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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| General |  | ||||
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| Tournaments |
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| Qualifications |
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| Finals |
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| Squads |
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| Related topics | |||||
