The

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

tournament of the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ...

was won by

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. This remains Sweden's only international title at a senior male football level and was the first international appearance of the trio that would later be known as Gre-No-Li dominating the

Italian league The Italic League or Most Holy League was an international agreement concluded in Venice on 30 August 1454, between the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, and the Kingdom of Naples, following the T ...

at A.C. Milan in the 1950s. It was the first international football tournament ever to be broadcast on television, with the semi-finals, final and bronze medal play-off all being broadcast live in full on the

BBC Television Service BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

Venues

Squads

Final tournament

The tournament began on 26 July 1948 with a preliminary round of two matches:

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

defeating

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

6–0 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 ...

beating

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

3–1, with

Faas Wilkes Servaas "Faas" Wilkes (, 13 October 1923 – 15 August 2006) was a Dutch football forward, who earned a total of 38 caps for the Dutch national team, in which he scored 35 goals (average 0.92 goals per game). However, for a prolonged period of ...

scoring two goals for the Dutch. In the first round, which began five days later, the Netherlands played

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 ...

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was sit ...

, Britain prevailing 4–3 after extra time. In goal for Britain was Ronnie Simpson, who would go on to become the oldest Scottish international debutant in history and one of the

Lisbon Lions The Lisbon Lions is the nickname given to the Celtic team that won the European Cup at the Estádio Nacional in Lisbon, Portugal on 25 May 1967, defeating Inter Milan 2–1. The name is likely due to the fact that the Lisbon-based Sporting foo ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

(victors over

) and

(3–0 winners against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

) also went through.

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

eliminated

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

's style of play at

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater it had a capacity of 36,284 before demolition. ...

attracted much attention. Their forward line contained three exceptional players; one of them Gunnar Gren scored a brace in an easy win. There were two goals, as well, for future

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

star

Željko Čajkovski Željko Čajkovski (5 May 1925 – 11 November 2016) was a Croatian football player and coach, who played as a forward. He was born in Zagreb, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Biography With the Yugoslavia national team he won the silver ...

in Yugoslavia's 6–1 rout of Luxembourg, although they were behind at half-time.

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

beat

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

5–3. Walter Bahr, Ed Souza, Charlie Colombo and

John Souza John Souza-Benavides (July 12, 1920 – March 11, 2012) known as John "Clarkie" Souza, was an American soccer player who earned 14 caps and scored 2 goals for the United States men's national soccer team, and played in the U.S. team's histori ...

were part of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

team that lost 9–0 to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, conceding five goals at the end of the match when they were down to nine men. They would later participate in the

1950 FIFA World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. The planned 1942 and 1946 World Cups were ...

and beat the favourites

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

in one of the greatest upsets in football history. In the quarter-finals, Sweden defeated both the South Koreans and the Danes in the semi-final. In the second semi-final, Great Britain played Yugoslavia at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

, going out by three goals to one. 3–1 was also the score in the final in favour of Sweden over Yugoslavia.

Preliminary round

----

First round

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

Quarter-finals

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

Semi-finals

----

Bronze medal match

Gold medal match

Bracket

Medalists

Statistics

Goalscorers

;7 goals * John Hansen (Denmark) * Gunnar Nordahl (Sweden) ;5 goals * Francesco Pernigo (Italy) * Henry Carlsson (Sweden) * Kjell Rosén (Sweden) ;4 goals * Stjepan Bobek (Yugoslavia) ;3 goals * Bob Hardisty (Great Britain) * Emidio Cavigioli (Italy) *

Servaas Wilkes Servaas "Faas" Wilkes (, 13 October 1923 – 15 August 2006) was a Dutch Forward (association football), football forward, who earned a total of 38 Cap (sport), caps for the Netherlands national football team, Dutch national team, in which he sco ...

(Netherlands) * Gunnar Gren (Sweden) *

(Yugoslavia) ;2 goals *

Karl Aage Hansen Karl Aage Hansen (4 July 1921 – 23 November 1990) was a Danish football player, who played as a forward. He won a bronze medal with the Denmark national football team at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. He scored 17 goals in 22 games f ...

(Denmark) * Johannes Pløger (Denmark) * Emilio Caprile (Italy) * Julien Gales (Luxembourg) * Marcel Paulus (Luxembourg) * Fernand Schammel (Luxembourg) * Bram Appel (Netherlands) * Chung Kook-chin (South Korea) * Nils Liedholm (Sweden) * Gündüz Kılıç (Turkey) * Rajko Mitić (Yugoslavia) * Franjo Wölfl (Yugoslavia) ;1 goal *

Karl Aage Præst Karl Aage Præst, also spelled Carl Aage Præst, (26 February 1922 – 19 November 2011) was a Danish football player. Playing in the left winger position, Præst won two Serie A championships with Italian club Juventus FC. He played 24 games an ...

(Denmark) * Holger Seebach (Denmark) *

Jørgen Leschly Sørensen Jørgen Leschly Sørensen (24 September 1922 – 21 February 1999) was a Danish footballer who played as a forward. He started as an amateur player in Danish football, and won the 1945 Danish championship with B.93. He played 14 games and sc ...

(Denmark) * El Din El Guindy (Egypt) *

René Courbin Raoul Courbin (born 18 August 1926) was a French footballer. He competed in the men's tournament at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He scored a goal against India at the 1948 Olympics 1948 Olympics may refer to: *The 1948 Winter Olympics, which we ...

(France) * René Persillon (France) * Andy Aitken (Great Britain) * Bill Amor (Great Britain) * Frank Donovan (Great Britain) * Dennis Kelleher (Great Britain) * Douglas McBain (Great Britain) * Harry McIlvenny (Great Britain) *

Sarangapani Raman Sarangapani Raman (1920 – 11 January 1991) was an Indian footballer who played for the Mysore State Police football team. He also represented India at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Playing career Raman played predominantly as a striker, and was ...

(India) * Bobby Smith (Ireland) * Adone Stellin (Italy) * Angelo Turconi (Italy) * Nicolas Kettel (Luxembourg) *

Raúl Cárdenas Raúl Cárdenas de la Vega (30 October 1928 – 26 March 2016) was a Mexican professional footballer and manager. He represented Mexico at the 1948 Olympics. Playing career Club Born in Mexico City, Cárdenas began playing football with Real C ...

(Mexico) * Antonio Figueroa (Mexico) * José Ruiz (Mexico) * Andre Roosenburg (Netherlands) * Bai Chon-go (South Korea) * Chung Nam-sik (South Korea) * Choi Song-gon (South Korea) *

Şükrü Gülesin Şükrü Gülesin (September 14, 1922 – July 10, 1977) was a Turkish football player and sports journalist. Almost two meters tall, he was a strong and quick striker, as well as a free kick and penalty specialist, and played for Beşiktaş, P ...

(Turkey) * Lefter Küçükandonyadis (Turkey) * Huseyin Saygun (Turkey) * Prvoslav Mihajlović (Yugoslavia) * Branko Stanković (Yugoslavia)

References

Sources

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Olympics

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

1948 in association football

1948–49 in English football