Football at the 1972 Summer Olympics

Football at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Tournament details
Host country	West Germany
Dates	27 August – 10 September 1972
Teams	16 (from 5 confederations)
Venue(s)	6 (in 6 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Poland (1st title)
Runners-up	Hungary
Third place	East Germany (shared); Soviet Union (shared)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	38
Goals scored	135 (3.55 per match)
Attendance	795,433 (20,932 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Kazimierz Deyna (9 goals)
	← 1968 1976 →

The 1972 Olympic football tournament, held in Munich, Augsburg, Ingolstadt, Nuremberg, Passau, and Regensburg, was played as part of the 1972 Summer Olympics. The tournament features 16 men's national teams from five continental confederations. The 16 teams are drawn into four groups of four and each group plays a round-robin tournament. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams advanced to the second group stage, where the second-placed teams in each group advanced to the bronze medal match while the first-placed teams advanced to the gold medal match held at Olympiastadion on 10 September 1972.^[1] The medalists were Poland (gold), Hungary (silver), and shared bronze medalists East Germany and the Soviet Union, the first of three consecutive Olympic football tournaments where all the medalists were communist countries and the first since 1956.

In 2017, the physician of the Soviet team revealed that the bronze medal match between the Soviet Union and East Germany was fixed at the request of Soviet coach Aleksandr Ponomarev.^[2]

^ "Football at the 1972 Munich Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
^ Romantsov, Denis (2 June 2017}). "«Высоцкий дал установку: «Макаронщиков надо обыграть». Он знает о нашем футболе все" [Vysotsky gave the order: "We need to beat the Makarons." He knows everything about our football]. sports.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 13 August 2024. Мы не вышли в финал, а игру за третье место против ГДР назначили на десять утра. Тренер Пономарев сказал: «Что-то не хочется с ними бодаться. Как бы нам вничью сыграть». Ничья означала бронзовые медали для обеих команд. Используя свой немецкий, выученный в институте, я подошел перед игрой к доктору сборной ГДР. «Как ты смотришь на то, чтобы медали получили и вы, и мы?» – «Положительно», – и пошел к тренеру. Тот повернулся ко мне и показал большой палец: вопрос решен. Мы забили друг другу по два мяча, но на второй тайм вышел динамовец Андрей Якубик, который, ни о чем не подозревая, ворвался в штрафную и чуть не сделал счет 3:2. Слава богу, не попал, а то немцы бы нас уничтожили. [We didn't make it to the finals, and the third-place game against East Germany was scheduled for ten in the morning. Coach Ponomarev said, "I don't feel like butting heads with them. How about we play to a draw." A draw would have meant bronze medals for both teams. Using my German, learned at the institute, I approached the East Germany team doctor before the game. "How do you feel about both of us getting medals?" "Yes," I said, and went to the coach. He turned to me and gave me a thumbs-up: the issue was decided. We scored twice each, but Dynamo's Andrei Yakubik came out for the second half, unsuspectingly burst into the penalty area and almost made the score 3:2. Thank God he missed, otherwise the Germans would have destroyed us.] {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

[SR-1] "Football at the 1972 Munich Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2018.

[2] Romantsov, Denis (2 June 2017}). "«Высоцкий дал установку: «Макаронщиков надо обыграть». Он знает о нашем футболе все" [Vysotsky gave the order: "We need to beat the Makarons." He knows everything about our football]. sports.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 13 August 2024. Мы не вышли в финал, а игру за третье место против ГДР назначили на десять утра. Тренер Пономарев сказал: «Что-то не хочется с ними бодаться. Как бы нам вничью сыграть». Ничья означала бронзовые медали для обеих команд. Используя свой немецкий, выученный в институте, я подошел перед игрой к доктору сборной ГДР. «Как ты смотришь на то, чтобы медали получили и вы, и мы?» – «Положительно», – и пошел к тренеру. Тот повернулся ко мне и показал большой палец: вопрос решен. Мы забили друг другу по два мяча, но на второй тайм вышел динамовец Андрей Якубик, который, ни о чем не подозревая, ворвался в штрафную и чуть не сделал счет 3:2. Слава богу, не попал, а то немцы бы нас уничтожили. [We didn't make it to the finals, and the third-place game against East Germany was scheduled for ten in the morning. Coach Ponomarev said, "I don't feel like butting heads with them. How about we play to a draw." A draw would have meant bronze medals for both teams. Using my German, learned at the institute, I approached the East Germany team doctor before the game. "How do you feel about both of us getting medals?" "Yes," I said, and went to the coach. He turned to me and gave me a thumbs-up: the issue was decided. We scored twice each, but Dynamo's Andrei Yakubik came out for the second half, unsuspectingly burst into the penalty area and almost made the score 3:2. Thank God he missed, otherwise the Germans would have destroyed us.] {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

[1]

[2]