| Tourney Name: | CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Country: | Canada |
| Num Teams: | 6 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 1 |
| Cities: | 1 |
| Count: | 4 |
| Matches: | 15 |
| Goals: | 48 |
| Prevseason: | 1992 |
| Nextseason: | 2000 |
The 1996 CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament was the ninth edition of the CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted association football tournament organized by CONCACAF to determine which men's under-23 national teams from the North, Central America and Caribbean region qualify for the Olympic football tournament. It was held in Canada, from 10 and 19 May 1996.
It was the first time in which teams that qualified for the Olympics were permitted to supplement their rosters with three players not restricted by age in its 18-man final list.[1]
Mexico, as winners qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics together with the United States who automatically qualified as hosts. Second-placed Canada later lost to Australia in the CONCACAF–OFC play-off and failed to qualify for the Olympics for the third consecutive time.
The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
| Zone | Country | Method of qualification | Appearance1 | Last appearance | Previous best performance | width=10% | Previous Olympic appearances (last) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | (hosts) | Automatic | 3rd | 1992 | Runners-up (1984) | 1 | |
| First round winner | 6th | 1992 | Winners (1964, 1972, 1976) | 7 | |||
| Central America | First round winner | 4th | 1984 | Winners (1980, 1984) | 2 | ||
| First round winner | 3rd | 1988 | Winners (1968) | 1 | |||
| Caribbean | First round winner | 2nd | 1972 | Fourth place (1972) | 0 | ||
| First round winner | 3rd | 1988 | Runners-up (1968) | 0 |
1 Only final tournament.
The matches were played in Edmonton.
| Edmonton | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Stadium | Clarke Stadium | ||
| Capacity: 60,081 | Capacity: 20,000 | ||
See main article: 1996 CONCACAF Men's Pre-Olympic Tournament squads.
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The following two teams from CONCACAF qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics, including the United States which qualified as hosts.
| Team | Qualified on | data-sort-type="number" | Previous appearances in Summer Olympics1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1904, 1924, 1928, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1972, 1984, 1988, 1992) | |||
| (1928, 1948, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1992) |
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.