Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Tournament details
Host country	Australia
Dates	November 24 – December 8
Teams	11
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 →

The association football tournament at the 1956 Summer Olympics was won by the Soviet Union.^[2]

Background

Following five withdrawals, the tournament featured three Eastern bloc teams and four from Asia. The other sides included in the draw were from the United States, Germany (West and East united), Great Britain and the hosts Australia, competing in their first Olympic football tournament.

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.^[3]

Venues

Melbourne
Olympic Park Stadium	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Capacity: 40,000	Capacity: 104,000
Olympic Park Stadium Melbourne Cricket Ground

Final tournament

First round

Five teams withdrew (Egypt, China, Turkey, South Vietnam, and the football team of Hungary, a nation that was cheered in other Olympic contests due to the ongoing suppression by Soviet troops), which left only three games to play in the first round.

The Great Britain football team eliminated Thailand 9–0, and Australia defeated Japan 2–0.

As five of the original sixteen teams withdrew, USA vs Yugoslavia match was postponed to the quarterfinals.

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

¹ Egypt, South Vietnam, and Hungary withdrew.
² Both teams withdrew; the match was scratched.
³ As five of the original sixteen teams withdrew, the match was postponed to the quarterfinals.

Quarterfinals

Yugoslavia defeated the United States 9–1.

Great Britain lost 6–1 to Bulgaria. Halfway through the game, ratings from HMS Newcastle vaulted the fence and exhorted the team to show more grit. They were peacefully escorted off the field.^[4]

The Soviets 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. The Indonesian referee disallowed two first half goals. Bob Bignall the Australian captain was unable to get an intelligible reply out of him during the break.

---

---

---

Semifinals

Yugoslavia defeated India 4–1. It would be their third consecutive Olympic final.

The Soviets defeated Bulgaria 2–1. Bulgaria scored first and conceded two goals in the last six minutes of the game.

---

Finals

Yugoslavia were playing Red Star Belgrade's Dragoslav Šekularac in this tournament; he would feature in the 1960 UEFA European Football Championship final. They lost 1–0 to a second half Anatoli Ilyin goal.

Bulgaria took Bronze defeating India 3–0.

Bronze Medal match

Gold Medal match

Bracket

First Round

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Finals

Yugoslavia

9

United States

1

Yugoslavia

4

India

1

Japan

0

Australia

2

Australia

2

India

4

India

w/o

Hungary

Yugoslavia

0

Soviet Union

1

South Vietnam

Indonesia

w/o

Indonesia

0

Soviet Union

4²

Soviet Union

2

Germany

1

Soviet Union

2 (AET)

Bulgaria

1

Bulgaria

w/o

Egypt

Bulgaria

6

Great Britain

1

Great Britain

9

Thailand

0

Goalscorers

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Own goals

• Muhamed Abdus Salam (India; playing against Yugoslavia)

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

See also

• Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's team squads
• Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification

References

External links

• Olympic Football Tournament Melbourne 1956, FIFA.com
• RSSSF Archive