1996 CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament


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.
Mexico, as winners qualified for the [Football at the 1996 Football at the Summer Olympics|Summer Olympics – Men's tournament|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.

Qualification

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
ZoneCountryMethod of qualificationAppearance1Last appearancePrevious best performancePrevious Olympic appearances
North America Automatic3rd1992Runners-up 1
North AmericaFirst round winner6th1992Winners 7
Central AmericaFirst round winner4th1984Winners 2
Central AmericaFirst round winner3rd1988Winners 1
CaribbeanFirst round winner2nd1972Fourth place 0
CaribbeanFirst round winner3rd1988Runners-up 0

Venues

The matches were played in Edmonton.

Final round

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Qualified teams for Summer Olympics

The following two teams from CONCACAF qualified for the 1996 Summer Olympics, including the United States which qualified as hosts.
TeamQualified onPrevious appearances in Summer Olympics1