Great Britain women's Olympic football team

This article is about the women's football team. For the men's football team, see Great Britain Olympic football team.

Great Britain
Shirt badge/Association crest
AssociationThe FA
CaptainSteph Houghton
Sophie Ingle
Kim Little
(2020)[1]
Most capsKim Little (9)
Jill Scott (9)
Top scorerEllen White (6)
FIFA codeGBR
First colours
Second colours
First international
United Kingdom Great Britain 0–0 Sweden Sweden
(Middlesbrough, United Kingdom; 20 July 2012)
Biggest win
United Kingdom Great Britain 3–0 Cameroon Cameroon
(Cardiff, United Kingdom; 28 July 2012)
Biggest defeat
 Great Britain 0–2 Canada 
(Coventry, United Kingdom; 3 August 2012)
Olympic Games
Appearances2 (first in 2012)
Best resultQuarter-finals (2012, 2020)

The Great Britain women's Olympic football team (also known as Team GB; or occasionally Great Britain and Northern Ireland) represent the United Kingdom in the women's football tournament at the Olympic Games. Normally, no team represents the whole of the United Kingdom in women's football, as separate teams represent England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.[2]

Women's football was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1996, but Great Britain did not enter the football events at this time.[3] This changed when the 2012 Summer Olympics were hosted by London, as an Olympic football team was created to take the automatic qualifying place of the host nation. Following an agreement between the British Olympic Association (BOA) and The Football Association (FA), which operates the England team, the FA selected the British team, which could include players from across the United Kingdom.[4] The team reached the quarter-finals, losing to Canada.[5]

FIFA stated that they would not allow entry of a British team in future Olympics unless all four Home Nations agreed. No agreement was reached ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics, but a deal was formed for the 2020 tournament.[6][7] Great Britain qualified for that tournament, as England secured one of the top three places among European teams at the 2019 World Cup.[8] For the 2024 tournament, Great Britain did not qualify, as England were unable to secure qualification via the 2023–24 Nations League.[9]

  1. ^ Hudson, Molly (25 July 2023). "Team GB women's football side to have three captains at Tokyo Olympics".
  2. ^ "About Us". www.teamgb.com. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  3. ^ "Why Team GB could be back at Olympics". ESPN. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  4. ^ "Team GB women's squad for London 2012 announced". BBC Sport. 26 June 2012. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  5. ^ Wilson, Paul (3 August 2012). "London 2012: Team GB women crash out of Olympics with defeat by Canada". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference decision rio 2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference decision tokyo 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference qualified tokyo 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference failed qualification paris 2024 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).