by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (August 5^th 2024)

Making History?

Sixty years ago Egypt equalled their best performance in football in the Olympic Games. For several years they were the most successful African nation in football at the Olympics – Nigeria and Cameroon are the most successful as they won gold medals in 1996 and 2000 respectively.

Tonight, Morocco and Egypt have the chance to advance to the final. Morocco’s previous best at the Olympic Games was over half a century ago – they qualified for the second round but lost all three matches. Egypt had finished fourth twice. In 1964, playing as the United Arab Republic, they lost the bronze medal match 3-1 to Germany – playing as the United Team of Germany despite the separation of East and West Germany. The eventual winners Hungary thrashed the UAR 6-0 in the semi-final.

That was the second time that Egypt had just missed out on a medal. In 1928 they finished fourth. Although the tournament was organised by FIFA for the IOC, this was the last Olympic Games football tournament to take place as an unofficial world championship of football. Two years later the first FIFA World Cup would take place, although the level of competition was clearly of a higher standard in Amsterdam in 1928 than it was in Montevideo in 1930.

Egypt was thrashed 11-3 by Italy for the bronze medal and 6-0 by beaten finalists Argentina in the semi-final. Nevertheless, the results at the Olympic Games in 1928 established Egypt as an important emerging football nation – one that would be expected to compete at the inaugural World Cup, but that’s another story. Egypt missed out.

Today they have the opportunity to achieve their best result at the Olympic Games when they take on hosts, France, but even if they lose tonight, they will have another chance to make history by winning their first medal in football at the Olympic Games.