Why isn't the England football team at the Olympics?

On 24 July, the football tournament at the Olympic Games in Paris will begin. It will feature top teams such as France, Spain and Argentina. But the England team is not on the list of participants. How did it happen?

The qualifying tournament for the 2024 Olympic Games for national teams under the auspices of UEFA are the European Youth Championship, which was held in June 2023 in Romania and Georgia.

The England national team won the right to play in Paris on a sporting basis, as they won the tournament, but they did not get a ticket to the Olympics.

All because at the Olympics is a united team of Great Britain. In football there is no such, and instead of the national team of Great Britain there are four separate teams that make up the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so we will not see the national team of England at the games.

However, the British national team did appear at the games and in qualifying tournaments until 1972. In 1974, the Football Association of England removed the distinction between professional and amateur footballers (and it was the latter at that time could perform at the games), so the Olympic team of Great Britain ceased to exist.

• Read also: Football at the 2024 Summer Olympics: participants, format, where and when matches will take place

In 1984, the ban on professional footballers was lifted, but the British Olympic team never returned to the Games on a permanent basis.

After that, the Great Britain Olympic team only assembled once, when London hosted the games in 2012. Back then, the squad consisted of 13 Englishmen and five Welsh.

But even without the British team, the football tournament at the Olympics is quite intriguing. At the Paris Games, 16 teams will take part. The matches will take place from 24 July to 10 July.