1980 Russia - GDR v Spain poster
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The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, were celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. Another candidate in the bid to organize the Summer Olympics was Los Angeles. The choice between them was made on October 23, 1974 in the 75th IOC Session in Vienna, Austria.
The USSR were favorites to win gold in soccer but won bronze instead. Czechoslovakia won the gold medal beating German Democratic Republic (Eastern Germany) 1:0 in the final. After many years in the doldrums, Olympic soccer had a revival in 1980 when the matches attracted nearly 2 million spectators.
The football tournament at the 1980 Summer Olympics started on July 20 and ended on August 2. Only one event, the men's tournament, was contested. 16 teams were divided into 4 groups:
- Group A (Cuba, USSR, Venezuela, Zambia)
- Group B (Colombia, Kuwait, Nigeria, Czechoslovakia)
- Group C (Algeria, Spain, GDR, Syria)
- Group D (Costa Rica, Finland, Iraq, Yugoslavia)
Two best teams of each group competed in the quarter-finals.
The football tournament was held in five venues:
- The Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium (Moscow)
- The Grand Arena of the Dynamo Stadium (Moscow)
- Kirov Stadium (Leningrad)
- Republican Stadium (Kiev)
- Dynamo Stadium (Minsk)
The final was held at the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium and the match for the 3rd place was held at the Grand Arena of the Dynamo Stadium. The football tournament was the most attended event on these Olympics: 1,821,624 spectators watched 32 matches of it at the stadiums.
1980 Russia - GDR v Spain poster