Athens 2004 - FIFA.com

General
General Organisation
Photos: Bongarts, FIFA, Mexsport
As part of the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad,
the Olympic Football Tournaments Athens
2004 comprised 10 women’s and 16 men’s
teams contesting 52 matches in five venues.
The FIFA headquarters were situated in
Athens, which also played host to all the
other sporting disciplines. In Athens, the
Karaiskaki Stadium hosted match days on
seven occasions. The only other match in
the Greek capital was the men’s final, which
was held at the Olympic Stadium where the
Games’ opening and closing ceremonies and
athletics events took place. As is now tradition,
football was also played in cities outside
of Athens, namely in Heraklion, Patras, Thessaloniki
and Volos.
The Organising Committee for the Olympic
Games Athens 2004 (ATHOC) did an
excellent job in collaborating with FIFA in the
preparation and organisation of the Olympic
Football Tournaments. Due to the fact that
football was just one of the 28 sports at these
Olympics, FIFA was placed in the unusual
position of not being the sole organiser of
accreditation, accommodation and transportation.
These matters were mainly dealt with
by ATHOC. Although the subject of accreditation
proved to be a difficult one – due to
limited numbers – FIFA managed to accredit
the FIFA family, teams and referees well in advance,
so that only last minute accreditations
had to be dealt with on site.
Transportation was organised by ATHOC
and, even though the FIFA delegation
had limited car numbers, this aspect ran
smoothly and extra buses organised to
take the FIFA delegation and referees to
the stadium in Athens helped greatly. However,
in some cases, there were difficulties in
transporting teams to and from the Olympic
Village.
The accommodation and training facilities
organised for the 26 teams and 63 referees
and assistant referees enabled them to pre-
pare for the tournament in optimal conditions.
All of the stadiums had been either
newly built or renovated and, as a result,
they were in excellent condition. Due to the
late completion of these facilities, however,
the condition of some of the football pitches
was quite poor.
FIFA used very experienced general coordinators
for these tournaments and relied fully
on the skills of Walter Sieber, Stefano Pucci,
Mustapha Fahmy, Harold Mayne-Nicholls and
Windsor John, who understood the complexity
of the Olympic Football Tournaments and
worked closely with ATHOC staff to ensure
the smooth running of matches.
The fact that the women’s tournament had
a 10-team field posed considerable problems.
With a 10-team format, it was especially difficult
to ensure consistency for the various
teams, notably in terms of the regulations for
disciplinary matters as well as determining the
quarter-final fixtures and the draw.
Matches were played in the evening (18.00,
20.30, and 21.00 h). The only exception was
the men’s final at the Olympic Stadium, which
was held at 10.00 h due to the extreme heat
and because the last athletics events were
scheduled for that evening.
Happily, there were no positive drug tests
to report at this event and once again FIFA’s
long-term commitment to the fight against
doping proved to be successful.
Overall, FIFA can look back on very successful
Olympic Football Tournaments in
Athens and everyone involved will certainly
remember the prevailing Olympic spirit and
the smiles of the many volunteers who helped
make the event a very memorable one.
8 9