July 20 – Two South Africa footballers have become the first competitors to test positive for coronavirus in the athletes’ village in Tokyo – just days before the start of the Olympic Games.
July 19 – Germany’s entire Olympic football team walked off the field on Saturday during a behind-closed-doors friendly ahead of the Tokyo Games after one of their players was allegedly racially abused by an opponent.
June 24 – Football is one of eight sports at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this August that will use a lottery system to decide which ticketholders can attend matches.
April 21 – The draw for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this summer has thrown up group clashes between Brazil and Germany in the men’s tournament while the USA women will get the chance for revenge against Sweden who knocked them out of the 2016 tournament in Rio.
April 14 – Chile’s women took the final qualifying slot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic tournament after a 0-0 draw was enough to put them through from the inter-continental play-off against Cameroon.
April 13 – China shattered South Korea’s dream of a first Women’s Olympic tournament winning the final AFC spot at Tokyo 2020 with a 4-3 aggregate win in a nerve jangling second leg play-off in Suzhou, China.
April 8 – After waiting to start their Tokyo Olympic knockout qualifier for more than a year, China emerged favourites for the last AFC qualification slot after a 2-1 away over South Korea in Goyang City.
By David Owen
March 11 – A 67-year-old German lawyer called Thomas Bach was re-elected as International Olympic Committee (IOC) president on the first day of a videoconferenced IOC session on Wednesday (March 10).
February 8 – Concacaf has released the schedule for the eight-team 2020 Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying to be played in Guadalajara, Mexico, March 18-30.
January 15 – Guadalajara in Mexico will host the Concacaf men’s qualifiers for the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. The eight U-23 teams will play March 18-30 to qualify two teams for Japan.
By David Owen
September 1 – It is exactly 100 years since, Spain, nowadays one of the powers of the global game, appeared in its first international football tournament.
March 27 – South Korea and Australia have called on FIFA to raise the age limit for the Olympic football tournament in 2021 with a view to keeping the players that helped participants qualify eligible for the tournament.
By David Owen
March 24 – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has finally bowed to the inevitable and postponed the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
February 10 – Defending champions Brazil have qualified for the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer after overcoming rivals Argentina 3-0 in a crunch qualifier. The Argentineans had already booked their ticket.
August 22 – Concacaf have announced Guadalajara, Mexico, as the host venue for its men’s U-23 Championship, which will qualify two teams for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.