Reminder: why Czech football is missing at the Olympics

The absence of Czech footballers at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, originally planned for 2020, was certain a year in advance. The selection of Czech players under the age of 21 would have had to make it to the semi-finals at the European Championships of the same age category played in Italy and San Marino in 2019. But the lion cubs did not even qualify for the final championship.

The team led by Vítězslav Lavicka did not even qualify for the barrage then, finishing behind Croatia and Greece.

Spain won the whole tournament, beating Germany 2-1 in the final. At the Udinese stadium, the Germans equalised with two minutes left in normal time.

Two of these teams reached the semi-finals of the championship. The losing semi-finalists were France and Romania.

These four countries will represent Europe at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and thus cannot meet in the group stage. The groups were drawn as follows:

Group A::
Japan
South Africa
Mexico
France

Group B::
New Zealand
South Korea
Honduras
Romania

Group C::
Egypt
Spain
Argentina
Australia

Group D::
Brazil
Germany
Côte d’Ivoire
Saudi Arabia

Spain is the biggest favourite to win the trophy, taking an unusually packed squad to the Olympics.

The Czech footballers last appeared at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. But then they lost ignominiously to Kuwait, failed to beat the USA or Cameroon and finished last.

Source: Wikipedia