Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification Zealand qualify for the Olympics. Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification The men's qualification for the 2012 Summer Olympics. FIFA restricted entry to players born after 1 January 1989. A total of 16 teams participated in the finals of the Olympic tournament for men. Of the six regional confederations, three (CONCACAF, AFC and OFC) ran dedicated qualification competitions for the Olympic tournament, while the other three used their own existing youth tournaments as qualifiers. UEFA announced that the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship tournament in Denmark would also serve as the qualifying tournament for the Olympics.
Football in Niger Football in Niger Association football is the most popular sport in Niger, a nation of 18 million. While popular, Niger have so far been unsuccessful in international football, never winning a major tournament and failing to qualify for any FIFA World Cup finals, though they did reach the quarterfinals of qualifying in 1982, before losing to Algeria, who qualified for the 1982 World Cup. They have either failed to qualify or been forced to withdraw from every African Nations Cup since 1969. As of 2008, there are no Nigerien nationals playing with top level European clubs. In 2004, a handful