Fifa seeks under-23 cap on women’s Olympic football before Los Angeles 2028
The men’s tournament was placed under an under-23 restriction in 1992 after pressure from Fifa.
Pierre-Louis Crescitz
paris, fifa, olympic, the olympic, olympics, football, move, controversial move
Key facts
The women’s game has grown and professionalised sharply over the past decade. That boom has piled fixtures onto national teams and clubs. Organisers…
The men’s tournament was placed under an under-23 restriction in 1992 after pressure from Fifa. Since 1996 each men’s squad has also been allowed…
Supporters of an age limit argue it could ease that clash of competitions. Critics see a risk of stripping the Olympics of the senior players who…
The women’s game has grown and professionalised sharply over the past decade. That boom has piled fixtures onto national teams and clubs. Organisers describe the 2028 calendar as the most congested yet. Women’s football entered the Olympics at Atlanta in 1996. It was then an amateur sport and never had eligibility rules of the kind applied to the men’s game.
The men’s tournament was placed under an under-23 restriction in 1992 after pressure from Fifa. Since 1996 each men’s squad has also been allowed three overage players.
Supporters of an age limit argue it could ease that clash of competitions. Critics see a risk of stripping the Olympics of the senior players who have defined the women’s tournament.
Fifa is seeking to restrict the women’s Olympic football tournament to under-23 players, a change that would recast an event that has never carried age limits since it began in 1996.