Football at the 1912 Summer Olympics

Football at the 1912 Summer Olympics

Illustration from the Official Report
Tournament details
Host country	Sweden
Dates	29 June – 4 July
Teams	11
Venue(s)	3 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Great Britain (3rd title)
Runners-up	Denmark
Third place	Netherlands
Fourth place	Finland
Tournament statistics
Matches played	11
Goals scored	93 (8.45 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Gottfried Fuchs (10 goals)
← 1908 1920 →

Football at the 1912 Summer Olympics
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Football at the 1912 Summer Olympics was one of the 102 events at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden.^[1] It was the fourth time that football was on the Olympic schedule. The tournament was contested between 11 nations, all of them from Europe, with Great Britain^[2] winning the gold medals (the IOC accredits Great Britain and Ireland with the medal). Replicating the 1908 tournament, Denmark won silver medals and the Netherlands won bronze medals.^[3][4]

Just as the Football Association had organised the 1908 Olympic football competition in London, the Swedish Football Association ran the 1912 event.

The games took place in three different stadiums from 29 June to 5 July 1912. From the eleven games of the main tournament, two were played at Tranebergs Idrottsplats in a suburb of Stockholm, five games including the bronze medal match took place at Råsunda Idrottsplats also outside Stockholm, while four games including the final were held at the Olympiastadion.

Competition schedule[]

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Venues[]

Stockholm
Stockholm Olympic Stadium	Stockholm Olympic Stadium Tranebergs Idrottsplats Råsunda IP Stockholm area with location in Sweden inserted
Capacity: 33,000
Råsunda IP
Capacity: —
Tranebergs Idrottsplats
Capacity: —

Participants[]

The tournament attracted a record 11 entries, all of them from Europe: The Football Association entered a Great Britain national amateur team to represent the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland).

France and Belgium also entered, but they withdrew shortly before the draw was made, while the entry of Bohemia was rejected, as only nations or associations affiliated to FIFA were allowed to enter the competition.

A total of 135+28 footballers from 11 nations competed at the Stockholm Games:^{[note 1]}

•  Austria (11+4)
•  Denmark (15)
• Grand Duchy of Finland (13)
•  Germany (11+11)
•  Great Britain (14) (Great Britain)
•  Hungary (11+3)
•  Italy (12+2)
•  Netherlands (15)
•  Norway (11+1)
•  Russian Empire (11+4)
•  Sweden (11+3)

Course of the tournament[]

In the first round of the tournament, the hosts from Sweden went out in the opening match against the Netherlands. Fighting back from a 1-3 deficit with half an hour to go, Sweden only lost 4-3 on a goal scored by Dutch player Jan Vos in the extra time of the English referee. At Tranebergs Idrottsplats, Austrian football pioneer Hugo Meisl was the referee as Finland beat Italy also in extra time.

In the second round, Finland won again, this time beating Russia, who had received a bye in the first round. By this stage, the Great Britain team entered the contest, drawn to play against Hungary at Olympiastadion. Great Britain was captained by Vivian Woodward, a record-scoring centre-forward from Chelsea, who had formed part of Great Britain's gold medal winning side of the 1908 Summer Olympics. Led by forward Harold Walden, who scored six goals, Great Britain defeated Hungary with 7-0.

In the semi-final round, Walden scored all four goals, as Great Britain defeated Finland 4-0. In the other semi-final Denmark beat the Netherlands 4-1; the Dutch consolation goal put behind goalkeeper Sophus Hansen by Danish defender Harald Hansen. For the second successive time, the final would pair Great Britain with Denmark, and like in 1908, the team representing Great Britain would win gold medals, although this game would be closer than the 4-2 score-line suggested. With no rule allowing substitutions, Denmark played with one player less from the 30th minute of the game, when Charles Buchwald was injured.

A consolation tournament ran, conjunctively, with the tournament proper paired the losers of the first and second rounds, and was eventually won by Hungary,^[5] although no medals were awarded for the top three finishers.^[3]

German player Gottfried Fuchs equalled the record for most goals in an international (set by Dane Sophus Nielsen in the 1908 Olympics) with 10 goals for Germany against Russia, a record that stood until 2001.

Bracket[]

First round

Second round

Semi-finals

Gold medal match

Great Britain

30 June – Stockholm

bye

Great Britain

7

Hungary

0

Hungary

2 July – Stockholm

bye

Great Britain

4

29 June – Stockholm

Finland

0

Italy

2

30 June – Stockholm

Finland (a.e.t.)

3

Finland

2

Russia

1

Russia

4 July – Stockholm

bye

Great Britain

4

Denmark

2

Denmark

30 June – Stockholm

bye

Denmark

7

Norway

0

Norway

2 July – Stockholm

bye

Denmark

4

29 June – Stockholm

Netherlands

1

Bronze medal match

Netherlands (a.e.t.)

4

30 June – Stockholm

4 July – Stockholm

Sweden

3

Netherlands

3

Netherlands

9

29 June – Stockholm

Austria

1

Finland

0

Austria

5

Germany

1

Match details[]

First round[]

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Quarter-finals[]

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Semi-finals[]

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Bronze Medal match[]

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Final[]

showTeam details

Great Britain Denmark GK Ronald Brebner DF Thomas Burn DF Arthur Knight MF Douglas McWhirter MF Henry Littlewort MF James Dines FW Arthur Berry FW Vivian Woodward FW Harold Walden FW Gordon Hoare FW Ivan Sharpe Head Coach: ? GK Sophus Hansen DF Nils Middelboe DF Harald Hansen MF Charles Buchwald MF Emil Jorgensen MF Paul Berth FW Oskar Nielsen FW Axel Thufason FW Anthon Olsen FW Sophus Nielsen FW Vilhelm Wolfhagen Head Coach: Charlie Williams Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1912 Summer Olympics Football Final.

Final summary[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
	Great Britain	3	3	0	0	15	2	+13	6
	Denmark	3	2	0	1	13	5	+8	4
	Netherlands	4	3	0	1	17	8	+9	6
4	Finland	4	2	0	2	5	16	−11	4
5	Austria	2	1	0	1	6	4	+2	2
6	Russia	1	0	0	1	1	2	−1	0
7	Hungary	1	0	0	1	0	7	−7	0
8	Norway	1	0	0	1	0	7	−7	0
9	Sweden	1	0	0	1	3	4	−1	0
10	Italy	1	0	0	1	2	3	−1	0
11	Germany	1	0	0	1	1	5	−4	0

Medallists[]

The database of the International Olympic Committee lists only the eleven players as medalists for each nation, who played in the first match for their nation.^[6] The following list contains these eleven players, as well as all other players who made at least one appearance for their team during the tournament.

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Great Britain Arthur Berry Ronald Brebner Thomas Burn Joseph Dines Edward Hanney Gordon Hoare Arthur Knight Henry Littlewort Douglas McWhirter Ivan Sharpe Harold Stamper Harold Walden Vivian Woodward Gordon Wright	Denmark Paul Berth Charles Buchwald Hjalmar Christoffersen Harald Hansen Sophus Hansen Emil Jørgensen Ivar Lykke Nils Middelboe Oskar Nielsen Poul Nielsen Sophus Nielsen Anthon Olsen Axel Petersen Axel Thufason Vilhelm Wolfhagen	Netherlands Piet Bouman Joop Boutmy Nico Bouvy Huug de Groot Bok de Korver Nico de Wolf Constant Feith Ge Fortgens Just Göbel Dirk Lotsy Caesar ten Cate Jan van Breda Kolff Jan van der Sluis Jan Vos David Wijnveldt

Consolation tournament[]

First round[]

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Semi-finals[]

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Final[]

Statistics[]

Goalscorers[]

10 goals

9 goals

8 goals

7 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Own goals

• Harald Hansen (Denmark; playing against Netherlands)
• Jalmari Holopainen (Finland; playing against Great Britain)

Notes[]

References[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Association football at the 1912 Summer Olympics.