At the 1908 Summer Olympics in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England, an official football tournament between national representative selections was contested for the first time; football had been played between club teams at the Games of 1900 and 1904. Eight entries were accepted, and were included in the tournament draw, including two from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

: the main team and a B team. Both

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

and Bohemia both withdrew after the draw and before the start of play, leaving six teams to contest the tournament.

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

won the gold medal representing the United Kingdom ( Great Britain and Ireland), although all the players were from England. Sophus "Krølben" Nielsen of Denmark set a record by scoring 10 goals in a 17–1 win over France A. The famous mathematician

Harald Bohr Harald August Bohr (22 April 1887 – 22 January 1951) was a Danish mathematician and footballer. After receiving his doctorate in 1910, Bohr became an eminent mathematician, founding the field of almost periodic functions. His brother was the ...

, brother of the even more famous

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 ...

, also played for

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, who won the silver medal.

Competition schedule

The match schedule of the tournament.

Venue

Squads

Bracket

Tournament

The matches: With eight entries, the tournament draw had a full quarterfinal round of four matches. However, after the draw and appointment of referees, (on 12 October) and (on 14 October) were both forced to withdraw due to financial reasons: this meant their opponents, the Netherlands and France respectively, were awarded a 2–0 victory.

First round

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Semi-finals

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Bronze medal match

Originally, all six teams eliminated before the final were to participate in a consolation tournament for the bronze medal, with two first-round matches to be played on 21 October between the four quarter-final losers. After Bohemia and

withdrew, the first round was scratched on 15 October, meaning France B and Sweden qualified automatically for the semi-finals of the consolation tournament. These teams and the two semi-final losers,

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, were scheduled to play the semi-finals on October 23, with the French teams being drawn against each other and the Netherlands drawn against Sweden, with the winners to play off in the bronze medal match prior to the gold medal match on October 24. However, both the French teams had returned home immediately following their crushing defeats to Denmark; therefore, their semi-final and the October 24 bronze medal match were scratched, with the Netherlands v Sweden semi-final becoming the bronze medal match. ----

Gold medal match

Medal summary

Medal table

Medalists

Complete list of medal winners: London 1908 English Amateur Football National Team

Statistics

Goalscorers

Sophus_Nielsen_at_the_1912_Summer_Olympics_-_Denmark_football_squad

;11 goals *

Sophus Nielsen Sophus Erhard "Krølben" Nielsen (15 March 1888 – 6 August 1963) was a Danish amateur football player and manager, and the first player in history to score ten goals in a full national team match. Nielsen scored a total 16 goals in 20 games for ...

;8 goals * Vilhelm Wolfhagen ;6 goals * Harold Stapley ;4 goals * Clyde Purnell ;3 goals * Nils Middelboe * Vivian Woodward ;2 goals *

* August Lindgren * Frederick Chapman * Robert Hawkes ;1 goal * Émile Sartorius * Arthur Berry * Jops Reeman * Edu Snethlage * Gustaf Bergström

Goalkeeping

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olympics 1908 Football 1908 in association football 1908 1908–09 in English football 1908–09 in Danish football 1908–09 in Dutch football 1908–09 in French football 1908 in Swedish football