Men's tournament

Means of qualification	Date of completion	Venue1	Berths[4]	Qualified	Senior team FIFA Ranking2
Host nation		–	1	Great Britain	43
AFC Preliminary Competition	29 March 2012	Various (home and away)	3	South Korea  Japan  United Arab Emirates	28 20 87
CAF Preliminary Competition	10 December 2011	Morocco	3	Gabon  Morocco  Egypt	45 71 42
CONCACAF Preliminary Competition	2 April 2012	United States	2	Mexico  Honduras	19 63
CONMEBOL Preliminary Competition	12 February 2011	Peru	2	Brazil  Uruguay	11 3
OFC Preliminary Competition	25 March 2012	New Zealand	1	New Zealand	95
UEFA Preliminary Competition	25 June 2011	Denmark	3	Spain   Switzerland  Belarus	1 21 77
AFC–CAF play-off	23 April 2012	Great Britain[5]	1	Senegal	61
Total			16

Women's tournament

Means of qualification	Date of completion	Venue1	Berths	Qualified	FIFA Ranking2
Host nation		–	1	Great Britain	92
AFC Preliminary Competition	11 September 2011	China[6]	2	Japan  North Korea	3 8
CAF Preliminary Competition	22 October 2011[7]	–	2	South Africa  Cameroon	61 50
CONCACAF Preliminary Competition	29 January 2012	Canada[8]	2	United States  Canada	1 7
CONMEBOL Preliminary Competition	21 November 2010	Ecuador	2	Brazil  Colombia	5 28
OFC Preliminary Competition	4 April 2012	–	1	New Zealand	23
(UEFA) 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup	17 July 2011	Germany	2	Sweden  France	4 6
Total			12

United Kingdom/Great Britain teams

A men's football team representing Great Britain competed in the Olympics until 1972, albeit failing to qualify for the main tournament after 1960. After the Football Association abolished the distinction between amateur and professionals, a ruling that came into force in 1974, Great Britain did not subsequently attempt to qualify in football, although after the rules on Olympic eligibility were relaxed in 1984, they would have been permitted to do so.

On 24 August 2008, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggested that the presence of a GB team at the 2012 games was "vital".^[9] He said that he had approached Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson to coach such a team.^[9] The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish football associations opposed such a move in case it would affect their status within the governing body of football, FIFA.^[9]

On 29 May 2009, after last-ditch talks prompted by a FIFA deadline to settle the row, the four associations sent a letter to FIFA stating that while the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish associations would not participate in a unified UK men's or women's teams at the Olympic Games, they would not prevent England from fielding teams under that banner.^[10][11]

However, Britain's FIFA Vice-president Jim Boyce stated that Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey, Craig Bellamy, Charlie Adam and other non-English players would have the legal right to be considered for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics. The deal among the four "home nations" was challenged by the British Olympic Association. Boyce said there was no legal restriction as to why a player from Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland could be stopped from playing.^[12]

Ultimately, five Welsh players were included in the 2012 Great Britain Olympic football squad, with Ryan Giggs – included as one of the three players over the age of 23 permitted – selected as team captain.^[13] Giggs would score during the tournament, in a 3–1 defeat of the United Arab Emirates at Wembley.^[14] None of the Great Britain men's football squad came from Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Great Britain (H)	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Senegal	3	1	2	0	4	2	+2	5
3	Uruguay	3	1	0	2	2	4	−2	3
4	United Arab Emirates	3	0	1	2	3	6	−3	1

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mexico	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	South Korea	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5
3	Gabon	3	0	2	1	1	3	−2	2
4	Switzerland	3	0	1	2	2	4	−2	1

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brazil	3	3	0	0	9	3	+6	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Egypt	3	1	1	1	6	5	+1	4
3	Belarus	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3
4	New Zealand	3	0	1	2	1	5	−4	1

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan	3	2	1	0	2	0	+2	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Honduras	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5
3	Morocco	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2
4	Spain	3	0	1	2	0	2	−2	1

Knockout stage

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Gold medal match
	4 August – Cardiff
	Great Britain	1 (4)
					7 August – Manchester
	South Korea (p)	1 (5)
					South Korea	0
	4 August – Newcastle
					Brazil	3
	Brazil	3
									11 August – London
	Honduras	2
									Brazil	1
	4 August – London
									Mexico	2
	Mexico (a.e.t.)	4
					7 August – London
	Senegal	2
					Mexico	3
	4 August – Manchester
					Japan	1			Bronze medal match
	Japan	3
									10 August – Cardiff
	Egypt	0
									South Korea	2
									Japan	0

Squad restrictions

The same restrictions used for recent Olympiads are applied, in which each squad is to consist of eighteen players, of which no more than three may be over the age of 23 before the beginning of the next year. In the case of the 2012 Summer Olympics, this restricts players born before 1 January 1989.^[16]

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Great Britain	3	3	0	0	5	0	+5	9	Qualified for the quarter-finals
2	Brazil	3	2	0	1	6	1	+5	6
3	New Zealand	3	1	0	2	3	3	0	3
4	Cameroon	3	0	0	3	1	11	−10	0

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sweden	3	1	2	0	6	3	+3	5	Qualified for the quarter-finals
2	Japan	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5
3	Canada	3	1	1	1	6	4	+2	4
4	South Africa	3	0	1	2	1	7	−6	1

Group G

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States	3	3	0	0	8	2	+6	9	Qualified for the quarter-finals
2	France	3	2	0	1	8	4	+4	6
3	North Korea	3	1	0	2	2	6	−4	3
4	Colombia	3	0	0	3	0	6	−6	0

Knockout stage

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Gold medal match

E1

Great Britain

0

F3

Canada

2

F3

Canada

3

G1

United States (aet)

4

G1

United States

2

E3

New Zealand

0

G1

United States

2

F2

Japan

1

F1

Sweden

1

G2

France

2

G2

France

1

Bronze medal match

F2

Japan

2

E2

Brazil

0

F3

Canada

1

F2

Japan

2

G2

France

0

Squad restrictions

There were no age restrictions in the women's tournament.^[17]

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Mexico	1	0	0	1
	United States	1	0	0	1
3	Brazil	0	1	0	1
	Japan	0	1	0	1
5	Canada	0	0	1	1
	South Korea	0	0	1	1
Totals (6 entries)		2	2	2	6

Medalists

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men	Mexico (MEX) Jesús Corona (captain) Israel Jiménez Carlos Salcido Hiram Mier Dárvin Chávez Héctor Herrera Javier Cortés Marco Fabián Oribe Peralta Giovani dos Santos Javier Aquino Raúl Jiménez Diego Reyes Jorge Enríquez Néstor Vidrio Miguel Ponce Néstor Araujo José Antonio Rodríguez	Brazil (BRA) Gabriel Rafael Thiago Silva (captain) Juan Jesus Sandro Marcelo Lucas Rômulo Leandro Damião Oscar Neymar Hulk Bruno Uvini Danilo Alex Sandro Ganso Alexandre Pato Neto	South Korea (KOR) Jung Sung-ryong Oh Jae-suk Yun Suk-young Kim Young-gwon Kim Kee-hee Ki Sung-yueng Kim Bo-kyung Baek Sung-dong Ji Dong-won Park Chu-young Nam Tae-hee Hwang Seok-ho Koo Ja-cheol (captain) Kim Chang-soo Park Jong-woo Jung Woo-young Kim Hyun-sung Lee Bum-young
Women	United States (USA) Hope Solo Heather Mitts Christie Rampone (captain) Becky Sauerbrunn Kelley O'Hara Amy LePeilbet Shannon Boxx Amy Rodriguez Heather O'Reilly Carli Lloyd Sydney Leroux Lauren Cheney Alex Morgan Abby Wambach Megan Rapinoe Rachel Buehler Tobin Heath Nicole Barnhart	Japan (JPN) Miho Fukumoto Yukari Kinga Azusa Iwashimizu Saki Kumagai Aya Sameshima Mizuho Sakaguchi Kozue Ando Aya Miyama (captain) Nahomi Kawasumi Homare Sawa Shinobu Ohno Kyoko Yano Karina Maruyama Asuna Tanaka Megumi Takase Mana Iwabuchi Yūki Ōgimi Ayumi Kaihori	Canada (CAN) Karina LeBlanc Chelsea Stewart Carmelina Moscato Robyn Gayle Kaylyn Kyle Rhian Wilkinson Diana Matheson Candace Chapman Lauren Sesselmann Desiree Scott Christine Sinclair (captain) Sophie Schmidt Melissa Tancredi Kelly Parker Jonelle Filigno Brittany Timko Erin McLeod Marie-Ève Nault

South Korean political statements

After South Korea defeated Japan in the Bronze Medal match at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on 10 August, South Korean player Park Jong-woo walked around the field holding a banner with a message written in Korean, "독도는 우리 땅!" (dokdo neun uri ttang lit. "Dokdo is our territory!).^[18] As both IOC and FIFA statutes prohibit any political statements being made by athletes at their respective sporting events, the IOC barred Park from the bronze medal ceremony and did not permit him to receive his medal.^[19][20] In addition, it asked FIFA to discipline Park, and stated that it may decide on further sanctions at a later date.^[21][22] FIFA failed to reach a conclusion on the case at a meeting at its Zürich headquarters held on 5 October, and the disciplinary committee discussed the case again on the following week,^[23] then failed to reach a verdict again. The case was heard again by the committee on 20 November,^[24] and FIFA decided on 3 December to suspend Park for two matches after he was considered to have breached the FIFA Disciplinary Code and the Regulations of the Olympic Football Tournaments. FIFA also imposed a warning on the Korea Football Association and reminded it of its obligation to properly instruct its players on all the pertinent rules and applicable regulations before the start of any competition, in order to avoid such incident in the future. The Korea Football Association was warned that should incidents of such nature occur again in the future, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee may impose harsher sanctions on the Korea Football Association.^[25]

Iranian women's team dress code violations

Iran's women's team^[26] and three Jordanian players were banned during the second round of the Asian qualification tournament due to not adhering to FIFA dress code; the players were allowed to play while covering their head in the first round. FIFA banned the hijab in 2007,^[27] although FIFA now allows the hijab to be worn after overturning the 2007 decision in 2012.^[28]

Use of incorrect flag for North Korea

Following the South Korean flag being put on display, instead of the correct North Korean flag, on the stadium screen at Hampden Park when the teams were being announced before the Colombia versus North Korea women's match, the North Korea team protested against this action by refusing to take to the pitch. The kick-off was delayed by over an hour while the mistake was being corrected.^[29]

Canada–United States semi-final

During the semi-final match between Canada and the United States, a time-wasting call was made against the Canadian goalkeeper, Erin McLeod, when she held the ball longer than the allowed six seconds. This violation is called in international play, and is intended to be used during instances of time-wasting.^[30] As a result, the American side was awarded an indirect free-kick in the box. On the ensuing play, Canada was penalized for a handball in the penalty box, with the American team being awarded a penalty kick, which Abby Wambach converted to tie the game at 3–3. The Americans went on to win the match in extra time, advancing to the gold medal game.^[31][32] After the match, Canada forward Christine Sinclair stated, "the ref decided the result before the game started." FIFA responded by stating that the refeering decisions were correct and saying it was considering disciplinary action against Sinclair, but that any disciplinary action would be postponed until after the end of the tournament.^[33][34][35]