Association football at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification

The men's qualification for association football tournament at the 1956 Summer Olympics was the first edition of qualification rounds.

Qualifications

The final tournament had 16 spots reserved with 28 countries initially showing interest in the tournament.

Automatic qualification was granted to Australia (host), Poland, Turkey, and Germany (originally as West Germany).

Europe: 4 places, contested by 8 teams (including Israel).
Africa: 1 place, contested by 2 teams.
Asia: 6 places, contested by 12 teams.
Americas: 1 place, contested by 2 teams.

Europe

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Bulgaria	5–3	Great Britain	2–0	3–3
Yugoslavia	w/o¹	Romania	–	–
Hungary	w/o²	East Germany	–	–
Soviet Union	7-1	Israel	5-0	2-1

¹ Romania withdrew.
² East and West Germany competed together at the 1956 Olympics, thus the East German football team withdrew. However, a solely West German football team was fielded instead of a combined one.

Africa

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ethiopia	3-9	Egypt	1-4	2-5

Asia

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
South Vietnam	9-5	Cambodia	5-2	4-3
Iran	w/d¹	Afghanistan	–	–
India	bye²	Thailand	–	–
Japan	2-2³	South Korea	2-0	0-2
China PR	w/o⁴	Philippines	–	–
Indonesia	w/o⁵	Republic of China	–	–

¹ Both teams withdrew.
² Both teams were awarded byes.
³ Both matches were played in Japan. Japan advanced on drawing of lots.
⁴ Philippines withdrew.
⁵ Republic of China withdrew.

Americas

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
United States	w/o¹	Mexico	–	–

¹ Mexico withdrew.

Before the official draw for the final tournament on September 1, 1956, Poland withdrew and was replaced by Great Britain. After the draw Hungary withdrew as well. Its place was offered to South Korea, however they declined as well. The People's Republic of China and Egypt withdrew their whole Olympic teams in protest. South Vietnam and Turkey also withdrew.