Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | Australia |
| Dates | 24 November – 8 December 1956 |
| Teams | 11 |
| Venue | 2 (in 1 host city) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Soviet Union (1st title) |
| Runners-up | Yugoslavia |
| Third place | Bulgaria |
| Fourth place | India |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 12 |
| Goals scored | 53 (4.42 per match) |
| Attendance | 194,333 (16,194 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Neville D'Souza Todor Veselinović Dimitar Milanov (4 goals each) |
← 1952 1960 → | |
The association football tournament at the 1956 Summer Olympics was won by the Soviet Union.
Defending champions Hungary were forced to withdraw due to the Soviet invasion of their country. Besides Hungary, the tournament was ignored by Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. In addition to the situation with Hungary, several more countries boycotted the competitions due to the Suez Crisis, while China ignored the tournament due to the IOC recognition of Taiwan.
This was the first Olympic football tournament where all the medalists were communist countries, with Yugoslavia and Bulgaria taking silver and bronze respectively.