| | Event type

Football, Men

Date	24 November – 8 December 1956
Status	Olympic
Location	Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Victoria / Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne, Victoria
Participants	143 from 11 countries
Format	Single-elimination tournament.

For the first time in history, a qualifying campaign was organized to bring down the number of competing teams to 16. Eventually five (Hungary, Egypt, South Vietnam, China and Turkey) of the qualified teams withdrew, leaving only eleven teams to play in Melbourne. The original draw had a first round of eight matches, but only three of those took place - Soviet Union vs. Germany, Great Britain vs. Thailand, and Australia vs. Japan. The scheduled first round match of Yugoslavia vs. United States was moved into the second round, or quarter-finals. The other first round matches scheduled were as follows: Bulgaria vs. Egypt, Hungary vs. India, Indonesia vs. South Vietnam, and China vs. Turkey. With China and Turkey not competing, that match was voided, while Bulgaria, India, and Indonesia were advanced into the quarter-final round.

Of the competing teams, the Soviet Union was heavily favoured to take the gold. They lived up to those expectations, although they did not play as well as expected, and needed a fair amount of luck. A combined German team narrowly lost 1-2 to the Soviets, who then progressed to a goalless draw against unheralded Indonesia. The Asians were dismissed 4-0 in the replay, and Bulgaria was their next opponent. After a goal-less 90 minutes, Bulgaria took the lead in extra time. The Bulgarians leaned back to finish the match easily, but the Soviets had a terrific comeback and decided the match in their favour with minutes to spare.

The Soviet’s opponent in final was Yugoslavia, which had lost the deciding match at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. They had beaten surprise semi-finalist India, whose players were unaccustomed to wearing boots during the game. Yugoslavia once more had to settle for silver in Melbourne. They were unlucky not to get a penalty kick early in the game and a seemingly legal goal was cancelled for offside. The Soviet team’s star was their keeper, Lev Yashin. He is generally considered to be the best ever goalkeeper, and led the Soviets to the inaugural European title in 1960. He played his entire career for Dynamo Moskva, winning five domestic championships.

Pos	Number	Team	NOC	Goals	Yellow Cards	Red Cards	Penalty Kicks	Shots	Shots on Goal	Corner Kicks	Free Kicks	Offsides	Fouls Committed
1	–	Soviet Union	URS	9	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	Gold
	1	Lev Yashin		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Anatoly Bashashkin		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Mikhail Ogonkov		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Boris Kuznetsov		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Igor Netto		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Anatoly Maslyonkin		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Boris Tatushin		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	12	Anatoly Isayev		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	13	Nikita Simonyan		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	14	Sergey Salnikov		2	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	15	Anatoly Ilyin		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Nikolay Tishchenko		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Aleksey Paramonov		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	17	Eduard Streltsov		2	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	16	Valentin Ivanov		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	18	Vladimir Ryzhkin		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Yozhef Betsa		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Boris Razinsky		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	20	Anatoly Porkhunov DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	19	Yury Belyayev DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Gavriil Kachalin
2	–	Yugoslavia	YUG	13	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	Silver
	1	Petar Radenković		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Mladen Koščak		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Nikola Radović		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Ivan Šantek		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	15	Ljubiša Spajić		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Dobrosav Krstić		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Zlatko Papec		3	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	16	Sava Antić		2	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Todor Veselinović		4	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Muhamed Mujić		3	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	12	Blagoja Vidinić		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	13	Ibrahim Biogradlić		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Luka Lipošinović		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Dragoslav Šekularac		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	14	Vladica Popović DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Kruno Radiljević DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	17	Joško Vidošević DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Milovan Čirić
3	–	Bulgaria	BUL	10	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	Bronze
	9	Yordan Yosifov		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Kiril Rakarov		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	18	Nikola Kovachev		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	20	Stefan Bozhkov		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	13	Manol Manolov		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Gavril Stoyanov		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Dimitar Milanov		4	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	19	Georgi Dimitrov		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	12	Panayot Panayotov		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Ivan Kolev		3	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Todor Diev		2	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Georgi Spirov Naydenov		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Milcho Goranov		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1	Krum Yanev		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	14	Ilia Kirchev DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Stoyan Ormandzhiev
4	–	India	IND	5	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	12	Hussain Ahmed		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Krishna Kittu		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Krishna Pal		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Muhammad Kannayan		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	13	Muhammad Salaam		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Muhammad Noor		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	14	Neville D'Souza		4	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Nikhil Nandy		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	16	Peter Thangaraj		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	PK Banerjee		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1	Samar Banerjee		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Sheikh Abdul Latif		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	17	Subramaniam Narayan		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Sayed Khwaja Aziz-ud-Din		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Abdul Rehman		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	15	Tulasidas Balaram		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Mariappa Kempaiah		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	18	Mohammed Zulfiqaruddin DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Abdul Rahim Syed
=5	–	Indonesia	INA	0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	18	Achad Arifin		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	15	Ashari Danoe		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	20	Jasrin Jusron		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Kwee Kiat Sek		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	19	Phwa Sian Liong		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	12	Andi Ramang		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Mohamed Rashjid		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1	Maulwi Saelan		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Chairuddin Siregar		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Tan Liong Houw		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Thio Him Tjiang		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	17	Aang Witarsa		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Ramlan Yatim		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Paidjo DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	M. Sidhi DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Rukma Sudjana DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Kasmuri DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	13	Ramli Yatim DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	14	Mohammad Djamiaat Dhalhan DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	16	Ade Dana DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Toni Pogačnik
=5	–	Great Britain	GBR	10	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	George Bromilow		2	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Henry Dodkins		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Tommy Farrer		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Bob Hardisty		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Jack Laybourne		3	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Derek Lewin		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Jim Lewis		2	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Stan Prince		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	13	Harry Sharratt		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	14	Don Stoker		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	15	Laurie Topp		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	16	Charlie Twissell		2	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Mike Pinner DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1	Dexter Adams DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	12	Terry Robinson DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Jimmy Coates DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Norman Creek
=5	–	Australia	AUS	4	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Al Warren		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	17	Bruce Morrow		2	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Ted Smith		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	13	Frank Loughran		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	George Arthur		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	19	Graham McMillan		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	15	Jack Lennard		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	12	John Pettigrew		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Bob Bignall		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Ron Lord		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	20	Cliff Sander		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Alec Beattie DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Bill Harburn DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1	Billy Henderson DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Col Kitching DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	18	Con Purser DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Alastair Rattray DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Peter Stone DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	16	Brian Vogler DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	14	Bob Wemyss DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Bob Telfer
=5	–	United States	USA	1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Bill Conterio		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Jim Dorrian		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Svend Engedal		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Harry Keough		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Ruben Mendoza		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Lloyd Monsen		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Ed Murphy		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	13	Zenon Snylyk		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	14	Herman Wecke		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	16	Al Zerhusen		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Bill Looby		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Ron Coder DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Alfonso Marina DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	15	Siegbert Wirth DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1	John Carden DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	12	Richard Packer DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Jimmy Mills
=9	–	Unified Team of Germany	GER	1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1	Albert Görtz		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	14	Ernst-Günter Habig		1	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Fritz Semmelmann		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	13	Herbert Schäfer		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Hermann Höfer		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	12	Hans Zeitler		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Karl Hoffmann		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Matthias Mauritz		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Rolf Geiger		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Rudi Hoffmann		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Willi Gerdau		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	15	Albert Brülls DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Manfred Eglin DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Günter Jäger DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Max Schwall DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Sepp Herberger
=9	–	Thailand	THA	0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Bumphen Luttimol		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1	Kasem Baikam		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	12	Prasan Suvannasith		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Prateep Chermudhai		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Sophon Hayachanta		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Sukit Chitranukhroh		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Samruay Chaiyong		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Surapong Chutimawong		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Suchart Mutugun		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Vivat Milinthachinda		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	13	Wanchai Suvaree		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Nit Sriyabhaya DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Tu Suwanit DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Bunchoo Samutkojon
=9	–	Japan	JPN	0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–		1
	8	Hiroaki Sato		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	15	Isao Iwabuchi		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	12	Masanori Tokita		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	17	Masao Uchino		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Michihiro Ozawa		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Ryuzo Hiraki		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	16	Shigeo Yaegashi		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	13	Tadao Kobayashi		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Waichiro Omura		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Yasuo Takamori		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Yoshio Furukawa		0	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1	Taizo Kawamoto DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	18	Akira Kitaguchi DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Kakuichi Mimura DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	14	Ken Naganuma DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Yukio Shimomura DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Takashi Takabayashi DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Shigemaru Takenokoshi

Round One

Date	24 – 27 November 1956
Format	Single-elimination

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	24 Nov 14:30	Soviet Union	URS	2 – 1	Unified Team of Germany	GER
Match #2		Indonesia	INA				bye
Match #3	26 Nov 14:30	Great Britain	GBR	9 – 0	Thailand	THA
Match #4		Bulgaria	BUL				bye
Match #5	27 Nov 16:30	Australia	AUS	2 – 0	Japan	JPN
Match #6		India	IND				bye
Match #7		United States	USA				bye
Match #8		Yugoslavia	YUG				bye

Quarter-Finals

Date	28 November – 1 December 1956
Format	Single-elimination.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	28 Nov 16:30	Yugoslavia	YUG	9 – 1	United States	USA
Match #2	29 Nov 16:30	Indonesia	INA	0 – 0	Soviet Union	URS
Match #3	30 Nov 16:30	Bulgaria	BUL	6 – 1	Great Britain	GBR
Match #4	01 Dec 14:30	India	IND	4 – 2	Australia	AUS
Replay #1	01 Dec 16:30	Soviet Union	URS	4 – 0	Indonesia	INA

Semi-Finals

Date	4 – 5 December 1956
Format	Single-elimination.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	04 Dec 16:30	Yugoslavia	YUG	4 – 1	India	IND
Match #2	05 Dec 16:30	Soviet Union	URS	2 – 1	Bulgaria	BUL	AET

Final Round

Date	7 – 8 December 1956
Format	Medal round.

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match 1/2	08 Dec 14:15	Soviet Union	URS	1 – 0	Yugoslavia	YUG
Match 3/4	07 Dec 16:30	Bulgaria	BUL	3 – 0	India	IND