Hot on the heels of Euro 2024 and the Copa America, the summer’s third major tournament is underway.
While the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony does not take place until Friday evening, the men’s football tournament kicked off on Wednesday, with Argentina taking on Morocco in Saint-Etienne, while Uzbekistan faced Spain at the Parc des Prices in Paris.
So given it’s the Paris Olympics, some eagle-eyed views have raised the question of why all the action isn’t taking place in the French capital. FourFourTwo takes a look at why…
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A look at the fixture lists for the men’s and women’s tournaments shows that the football tournament will be played in seven different stadiums across the whole of France.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Parc des Princes is just one of the venues used and will host five group games and then a quarter-final, plus the gold medal match.
Matches will also be played in Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne, Nice and Nantes and there are a few reasons why the action is not exclusive to Paris.
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The Stade Velodrome will host matches (Image credit: Nick Potts)
First off, it’s down to boring logistics. Over the men’s and women’s tournaments, there are 58 games to be played in a 17-day period between July 24 and August 10. More than one venue is clearly needed, as the Parc des Princes would struggle to host up to four games a day. With the Stade de France being used as the main Olympic Stadium and the next biggest stadium in the city being Paris FC’s 20,000-capacity Stade Sebastien Charlety, the action clearly needs to be spread about more.
By taking the tournament to some of the biggest grounds in the country, it also allows more fans to be there and gives the whole of the nation the opportunity to attend an Olympic event.
This was the case at the London 2012 Games, with Wembley hosting the gold medal matches, but the likes of Old Trafford, the Millennium Stadium, St James’ Park, Hampden Park and the Ricoh Arena all hosting matches.
