Olympics chiefs have undercut their advocacy of full gender equality – telling Sky News it would be too costly to have as many women’s teams as men’s sides participating in football.
The gender gap has existed since women’s football was introduced into the Olympics in 1996 while men’s teams first participated at the Games in 1900.
Sky News understands FIFA has been pushing to add four more women’s national sides to match the size of the 16-team men’s event.
It is understood there is an unwillingness by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to remove four men’s teams – given how lucrative the matches are for ticket sales.
The IOC said in a statement to Sky News: “The men’s football tournament is an exception, being the only team sport with 16 teams, based on a long-standing agreement respected by the current IOC leadership.
“Raising the number of women’s teams would potentially trigger requests from other team sports, which would then have an even greater impact on the cost, complexity, size and sustainability of the Games.”
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There are the same number of men’s and women’s teams in basketball, handball, hockey, rugby sevens and volleyball – although there are fewer women in water polo.
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The concept of gender equality is enshrined in the Olympic charter and it was the IOC’s theme of the day in Paris.
They had implied today there was a desire to end the disparities between the football competitions when asked by Sky News at the news conference.
IOC director of corporate development and sustainability Marie Sallois said: “The direction is set … we are on a journey and we need to continue to work.”
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But it later became clear there were obstacles on the journey when the IOC provided more detail.
“The IOC is committed to keeping the Olympic Games within a set framework, to reduce cost and complexity,” the IOC statement continued.
“The overall athlete quota for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 has been set at 10,500 athletes.
“As a general rule, if any international [sports] federation wants to increase its number of places, the IOC will have to take these out of the existing quota allocated for the sport, or out of the quota for another sport.
“This was not possible for Olympic Games Paris 2024, which explains the quotas in place.”
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Overall, there is a near 50-50 split among the more than 11,000 men and women participating in Paris.
But there are 157 men’s events compared to 152 for women along with 20 mixed-gender events.
Team GB was last represented in women’s football at Tokyo three years ago because England qualified by reaching the 2019 Women’s World Cup semi-finals.
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But England missed out on Paris through the new Nations League format.
Team GB men technically qualified for the Paris Olympics because England won the last U21 European Championship.
But Britain does not take up a men’s football spot – apart from at London 2012 – over fears of the four home nations losing their separate status in FIFA to each be able to qualify for World Cups and European Championships.
