For the 2024 Olympics, UEFA used the inaugural Women's Nations League season as the qualifiers to decide the team traveling to Paris this summer. The two best-ranked sides, except Olympic hosts France, in the Nations League fulfilled the slots available for Europe in the tournament. At last, Spain and Germany book the group stage berth in the Olympics with La Roja winning the Nations League and the Germans finishing third.
Check here Women's football olympics 2024 teams
With limited places available, the teams reaching the Nations League final guaranteed themselves a place but the slot went to the third-best team as France made it to the showpiece. Les Blueus are automatically qualified as hosts. Hence, it was obvious that some of the star names of women’s football would fail to make it to the Olympic stage. That certainly happened with only the group winners in the Nations League allowed to reach the knockouts.
Here are some of the top European Teams not in the Women’s Football Tournament at Paris Olympics 2024:
Denmark
Denmark came close to making their second appearance in the Olympics having participated in the first-ever Women’s Football Tournament back in 1996. The Red and White’s start in the Nations League was impressive, beating Germany in the opener and collecting three more wins on the trot. However, losing the reverse fixture against eventual group winners Die Nationaelf away from home was a damaging one. Denmark also suffered a shock loss to Iceland in their final group game to lose the top spot and move out of contention. They finished second with just a point off the first place after six matches.
Norway
Gold medalists in the year 2000, Norway have now failed to enter the Olympics Women’s Football Tournament for the fourth successive time. Their recent slump in the tournament continued as they finished third and 11 points off the top spot, held by 2024 hosts France, in their inaugural UEFA Nations League group. As a case, Norway could not make it into the knockouts to have a chance of qualification even finishing five points behind Austria. They managed to win just one game out of six and lost in three.
Netherlands
Topping their group ahead of England on goal difference, the Netherlands entered the knockouts of the Nations League for a chance to qualify for the Olympics. The Oranje shirts failed to take the opportunity though losing to eventual winners Spain in the semi-finals before surrendering against Germany in the third-place match. The Netherlands needed to be among the top two finishing nations, apart from France, in the Nations League to make it into Paris but their fourth-place finish was unrewarding. The Dutch made it to the Olympics just once before in 2020.
Team GB
Another high-profile name that will not be making it into the Olympics Women’s Football Tournament will be Great Britain as England failed at the group stages of the 2023/24 Nations League campaign. There was controversy ahead of the tournament for having both England and Scotland in the same group but the Scots also got relegated from League A. Ultimately, the 2-1 loss to group toppers Netherlands in addition to the 3-2 defeat away at Belgium proved to be costly for the Lionesses. Even after beating the Dutch in the reverse fixture, the goal difference forced them to score seven goals in the final group match against rivals Scotland. They came agonizingly close to doing so by managing a massive 6-0 victory but it was not enough with Netherlands managing a 4-0 win against Belgium simultaneously.
Sweden
The most notable team among the lot to not make it to the Olympics will be Sweden. The Blue and Yellows are going to miss the competition for the first time in their history after competing in all the Women’s Football Tournaments before. They managed to bag the Silver in the previous two campaigns, missing the Gold in 2020 by losing on penalties against Canada in the final. Sweden was drawn into a tough group alongside Women’s World Cup holders Spain who eventually topped it. The Women’s World Cup Bronze winners finished third with an eight-point deficit from the top and also behind Italy in a greatly disappointing campaign.
