Confederation - No. of Teams - Qualified Teams
AFC - 3 - Iraq, Japan, Korea Republic
CAF - 3 - Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa
UEFA - 4 - Denmark, Germany, Portugal, Sweden
ALLOCATION TO POTS:
- The 16 qualified teams are allocated to four pots of four teams each, based on a ranking built according to past sporting performance
- The ranking is based on the total points obtained in the last five Olympic Football Tournaments (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 for a loss)
- The ranking used to build the pots is thus based on the points obtained at the 2012, 2008, 2004, 2000 and 1996 Olympics
- To enable the ranking to accurately reflect current form, the greatest importance is given to results from the most recent Olympics
- To a lesser degree, attention is also paid to results from previous years
- The system uses five cycles as the points earned in one Olympics decline linearly within the past five cycles:
* Year 2012: 100% value of total points
* Year 2008: 80% value of total points
* Year 2004: 60% value of total points
* Year 2000: 40% value of total points
* Year 1996: 20% value of total points
- In addition, five bonus points are added to each of the confederation champions that won a qualifying tournament
- Based on the above ranking, the three top teams and the hosts are allocated to Pot 1, the next four teams to Pot 2 and so on
South Africa missed out on the last three editions having last qualified for the Olympic Games in 2000 - they won one match (3-1 vs Brazil) and lost two (2-1 vs Japan; 2-1 vs Slovakia) and could not get out of the group stages, meaning they earned just 1.2 points. Algeria, Colombia, Denmark and Germany did not qualify for the last five Olympic Games, thus they earn zero points.
Therefore, the pot allocation for the men’s draw is as follows:
Pot 1: Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Japan
Pot 2: Nigeria, Korea Rep., Honduras, Iraq
Pot 3: Sweden, Fiji, Portugal, South Africa
WOMEN’S DRAW:
SLOT ALLOCATION:
Confederation - No. Of Teams - Qualified Teams
AFC - 2 - Australia, China PR
CAF - 2 - South Africa, Zimbabwe
CONCACAF - 2 - Canada, USA
CONMEBOL - 2 - Brazil, Colombia
OFC - 1 - New Zealand
UEFA - 3 - France, Germany, Sweden
ALLOCATION TO POTS:
The 12 qualified teams are allocated to four pots of three teams each, based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking released on 25 March, therefore the two top teams and the hosts are allocated Pot 1, the next three teams to Pot 2 and so on:
Pot 1: Brazil, USA, Germany
Pot 2: France, Australia, Sweden
Pot 3: Canada, China PR, New Zealand
Pot 4: Colombia, South Africa, Zimbabwe