Melbourne 1956 | YUGOSLAVIA - USSR | Football Finale | Olympic Summer Games |96|

From our Collection, created from unreleased Amateur footage. For licensing inquiries please contact info@ ******* The increasing number of teams entered, with 27 at Helsinki in 1952, forced FIFA to institute qualifying tournaments. Other than the hosts, Australia, and Germany, Poland, and Turkey, which were given byes, a qualifying competition was held on a regional basis across the world. Each pairing was contested over two legs, with the winners qualifying for the Olympic Games. The 12 qualifying teams were Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Japan, Soviet Union, Thailand, United States, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia to yield a 16-team field. However, a number of withdrawals took place before the Olympic Games. China was ineligible to compete as they were not yet recognized by the International Olympic Committee, and Egypt, Hungary, Poland, Vietnam, and Turkey withdrew for a mixture of political and financial reasons. Great Britain was invited to take part as a replace