Football at the 1980 Summer Olympics
The football tournament at the 1980 Summer Olympics started on 20 July and ended on 2 August. Only one event, the men's tournament, was contested. Seven qualified countries did not participate joining the American-led boycott in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.[1]
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Tournament details | |
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Host country | Soviet Union |
Dates | 20 July – 2 August |
Teams | 16 (from 5 confederations) |
Venue(s) | 5 (in 4 host cities) |
Final positions | |
Champions | ![]() |
Runners-up | ![]() |
Third place | ![]() |
Fourth place | ![]() |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 32 |
Goals scored | 82 (2.56 per match) |
Top scorer(s) | ![]() |
Sixteen teams were divided into four groups:
- Group A (USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, Zambia)
- Group B (Colombia, Kuwait, Nigeria, Czechoslovakia)
- Group C (Algeria, Spain, GDR, Syria)
- Group D (Costa Rica, Finland, Iraq, Yugoslavia)
In the technical report following the competition, FIFA reported that: "Compared with the 1979 World Youth Tournament in Japan and the 1978 World Cup finals in Argentina, the standard of football at the Olympic Football Tournament was generally of an inferior quality,".[2]
Venues
Moscow | |||||
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Central Lenin Stadium | Dynamo Stadium | ||||
Capacity: 91,251 | Capacity: 50,475 | ||||
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Minsk | Leningrad | Kiev | |||
Dinamo Stadium | Kirov Stadium | Republican Stadium | |||
Capacity: 50,125 | Capacity: 74,000 | Capacity: 100,169 | |||
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The football tournament was the most attended event on these Olympics: 1,821,624 spectators watched 32 matches of it at the stadiums.
Qualification
Due to the American-led boycott, countries (in brackets) who qualified did not enter the final tournament. Spain sent a team under the IOC flag. The following 16 teams qualified for the 1980 Olympics football tournament:
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Match officials
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Squads
Final tournament
Group A
Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 1 | +14 | 6 |
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3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 9 | −6 | 4 |
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3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 2 |
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3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | −4 | 0 |
Soviet Union ![]() | 4–0 | ![]() |
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Andreyev ![]() Cherenkov ![]() Gavrilov ![]() Hovhannisyan ![]() |
Report |
Soviet Union ![]() | 3–1 | ![]() |
---|---|---|
Khidiyatullin ![]() ![]() Cherenkov ![]() |
Report | Chitalu ![]() |
Soviet Union ![]() | 8–0 | ![]() |
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Andreyev ![]() ![]() ![]() Romantsev ![]() Shavlo ![]() Cherenkov ![]() Gavrilov ![]() Bessonov ![]() |
Report |
Group B
Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 4 |
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3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 4 |
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3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 3 |
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3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 1 |
Czechoslovakia ![]() | 3–0 | ![]() |
---|---|---|
Pokluda ![]() Berger ![]() Vízek ![]() |
Report |

Czechoslovakia ![]() | 1–1 | ![]() |
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Vízek ![]() |
Report | Nwosu ![]() |

Czechoslovakia ![]() | 0–0 | ![]() |
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Report |
Group C
Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | +6 | 5 |
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3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 3 |
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3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
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3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 8 | −8 | 1 |
East Germany ![]() | 1–1 | ![]() |
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Kühn ![]() |
Report | Marcos ![]() |
East Germany ![]() | 1–0 | ![]() |
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Terletzki ![]() |
Report |
Group D
Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 5 |
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3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 4 |
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3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 3 |
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3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 9 | −7 | 0 |
Yugoslavia ![]() | 2–0 | ![]() |
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Šećerbegović ![]() Šestić ![]() |
Report |
Iraq ![]() | 3–0 | ![]() |
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Ahmed ![]() Saeed ![]() Hassan ![]() |
Report |
Yugoslavia ![]() | 3–2 | ![]() |
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Zlatko Vujović ![]() ![]() Primorac ![]() |
Report | White ![]() Arroyo ![]() |
Yugoslavia ![]() | 1–1 | ![]() |
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Zoran Vujović ![]() |
Report | Hassan ![]() |

Bracket
Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
July 27 - Moscow | ||||||||||
![]() | 2 | |||||||||
July 29 - Moscow | ||||||||||
![]() | 1 | |||||||||
![]() | 1 | |||||||||
July 27 - Kiev | ||||||||||
![]() | 0 | |||||||||
![]() | 4 | |||||||||
August 2 - Moscow | ||||||||||
![]() | 0 | |||||||||
![]() | 1 | |||||||||
July 27 - Leningrad | ||||||||||
![]() | 0 | |||||||||
![]() | 3 | |||||||||
July 29 - Moscow | ||||||||||
![]() | 0 | |||||||||
![]() | 2 | |||||||||
July 27 - Minsk | ||||||||||
![]() | 0 | Bronze medal match | ||||||||
![]() | 3 | |||||||||
August 1 - Moscow | ||||||||||
![]() | 0 | |||||||||
![]() | 2 | |||||||||
![]() | 0 | |||||||||
Quarter-finals
Yugoslavia ![]() | 3–0 | ![]() |
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Miročević ![]() Šestić ![]() Zoran Vujović ![]() |
Report |
Czechoslovakia ![]() | 3–0 | ![]() |
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Vízek ![]() ![]() Pokluda ![]() |
Report |

East Germany ![]() | 4–0 | ![]() |
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Schnuphase ![]() Netz ![]() Steinbach ![]() Terletzki ![]() |
Report |
Semi-finals
Soviet Union ![]() | 0–1 | ![]() |
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Report | Netz ![]() |
Czechoslovakia ![]() | 2–0 | ![]() |
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Lička ![]() Šreiner ![]() |
Report |
Bronze Medal match
Soviet Union ![]() | 2–0 | ![]() |
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Hovhannisyan ![]() Andreyev ![]() |
Report |
Gold Medal match
Czechoslovakia ![]() | 1–0 | ![]() |
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Svoboda ![]() |
Report |
Team details | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The final was played in a hard rain for the third straight Olympics. Both teams played with ten players after the 58th minute after one player from each team was red-carded.
Medalists
Goalscorers
With five goals, Sergey Andreyev of Soviet Union is the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 82 goals were scored by 52 different players, with only one of them credited as own goal.
- 5 goals
- 4 goals
- 3 goals
- 2 goals
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- 1 goal
- Own goals
Mahboub Mubarak (playing against Nigeria)
Final ranking
Below the final ranking after the end of the tournament.[3]
Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
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1 | ![]() |
6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 1 | +9 | 10 |
2 | ![]() |
6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 2 | +10 | 9 |
3 | ![]() |
6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 3 | +16 | 10 |
4 | ![]() |
6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 7 |
5 | ![]() |
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 4 |
6 | ![]() |
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 4 |
7 | ![]() |
4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 12 | −9 | 4 |
8 | ![]() |
4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 |
9 | ![]() |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 3 |
10 | ![]() |
3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
11 | ![]() |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 3 |
12 | ![]() |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 2 |
13 | ![]() |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 1 |
14 | ![]() |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 8 | −8 | 1 |
15 | ![]() |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | −4 | 0 |
16 | ![]() |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 9 | −7 | 0 |
References
- "Football at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
- "FIFA Technical Report - 1980 Olympics Football Tournament" (PDF). FIFA. 1980. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- http://www.rsssf.com/tableso/ol1980f-det.html