Eight teams competed in the women's football tournament at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In addition to the host nation, Australia, seven other teams qualified for the tournament based on the results from the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Unlike the men's competition, there was no fixed slot allocation for the women's tournament. Instead, the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup would be used as the preliminary competition to qualify teams for the women's Olympic football tournament, which featured eight teams. Australia automatically qualified for the tournament as hosts, with the remaining spots going to the top seven teams at the Women's World Cup, excluding Australia.[1] FIFA set the following qualification procedure to determine the remaining seven teams:[2] [3]
To determine the best three quarter-final losers, FIFA set the following ranking criteria:
See main article: 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup.
See main article: 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification.
Sixteen teams qualified for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup in the United States based on a fixed slot allocation.
| Confederation | Slots | Tournament | Teams qualified | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AFC (Asia) | 3 | 1997 AFC Women's Championship | ||
| CAF (Africa) | 2 | 1998 African Women's Championship | ||
| CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean) | 2.5 | Host country | ||
| 1998 CONCACAF Women's Championship | ||||
| CONCACAF v CONMEBOL play-off | ||||
| CONMEBOL (South America) | 1.5 | 1998 South American Women's Football Championship | ||
| OFC (Oceania) | 1 | 1998 OFC Women's Championship | ||
| UEFA (Europe) | 6 | 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (UEFA) |
See main article: 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup knockout stage.
As Australia were eliminated in the group stage, the results of the quarter-finals were used to determine the seven teams which would qualify.[4] Although Russia and Sweden both lost by two goals, the Swedes had scored in their defeat while Russia did not, leaving them as the only quarter-finalist to not qualify for the Olympics.[5] [6]
| Team | Qualification | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 1 | +2 | Qualify for 2000 Summer Olympics | ||
| 2 | 2 | 0 | +2 | |||
| 3 | 4 | 3 | +1 | |||
| 4 | 3 | 2 | +1 | |||
| 5 | 3 | 4 | −1 | |||
| 6 | 2 | 3 | −1 | |||
| 7 | 1 | 3 | −2 | |||
| 8 | 0 | 2 | −2 |
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
The following teams qualified for the 2000 Summer Olympic women's football tournament:[7]
| Team | Confederation | Qualified as | Qualified on | data-sort-type="number" | Previous appearances in Summer Olympics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [8] | 0 (debut) | ||||
| 1 (1996) | |||||
| 1 (1996) | |||||
| 1 (1996) | |||||
| 1 (1996) | |||||
| 1 (1996) | |||||
| 1 (1996) | |||||
| 0 (debut) |
| Confederation | Teams qualified | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 3 |