It was during the International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in November 1984 that the organization of a football tournament was discussed. The suggestion was for the 1896 Games to have a football tournament. By early 1896, the Greek Olympic Organizing Committee had been informed that four foreign football teams were interested in sending a team for this tournament. Thus, on 17 March, the historic decision was made to include football in the official programme of the 1896 Games. In a shocking turn of events however, none of the four clubs showed up in Athens. This was despite the Greek preparations for a football tournament. Ultimately, in a meeting of the Greek organizing committee on 28th March, a final decision was taken to remove football from the official Olympic programme due to the small number of participants.
However, the deadline for both federations and clubs to sign up was six days later (3 April). By this time, the Secretary-General had received name lists from Greece and Denmark. Thus, similar to other games ( like boxing, cricket, horse racing, rowing and sailing), football was an unofficially part of the Olympic programme in Athens in 1896.
The teams
The Greek football side was represented by Sports Club Athinaikos Athlitikos Syllogos, who were one of the pioneers of Greek football. However, it was a contrasting case for the Denmark side.
The Denmark team faced struggles to put up a proper side. Københavns Roklub (KR) was a fine Denmark side of the 1890's era, and they received an invitation from the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin. The side only sent two of their player's though, for the 1896 Olympics. They were Eugen Schmidt and Holger Nielsen. In what was a surprising move, those two filled the rest of the team with Danes who lived in Athens or those who were there at the time for work. These included the likes of sailors and businessmen. Additionally, some members from the Danish sports club Østerbro Boldklub (ØB) were added as well. Together, both Østerbro Boldklub and Københavns Roklub became founding members of the Danmarks Idrætsforbund (DIF, Danish Sports Confederation) on 14th February 1896. They eventually selected the team that were sent for the tournament.
The official lineups
The following is the official Greek side that played this game:
GK - Pavlos Kountouriotis
DF - Kavalieratos Anninos
DF - Konstantinos Zervoudakis
MF - Demetrios Petrokokkinos
MF - Georgios Karamanos
MF - Stavros Antoniadis
FW - Spyridon Angonakis
FW - P. Gasparis
FW - Epamaindos Harilaos
FW - Stamatios Nikolopoulos
FW - Eleftherios Psaroudas
Coming to Denmark, reports state that although they had 12 participants for the Olympics( with the known official one's being Eugen Schmidt and Holger Nielsen), the other individuals were most likely only part of the unofficial football match, and therefore, were never listed in official sources. Thus, we sadly do not have any official information on the rest of the Denmark players who took part in that game.
Conclusion
The International Olympic Committee does not officially recognize the existence of an official football tournament at the 1896 Olympics, with the majority of 1896 Olympic Games related works not mentioning a football competition. This was due to a recommendation from Crown Prince Constantine, the chairman of the 1896 Olympic Organizing Committee, who publicly said that sports which were not part of the official Olympic programme should not be mentioned.
Thus, being an unofficial sport tournament in the Olympics, football match was forbidden to be reported anywhere, neither by the local or the national press. However, there is undeniable evidence that the football match did take place either unofficially or as a demonstration sport. There are conflicting rumors regarding the final score, with most sources claiming a 9–0 or 15–0 victory for the Danish. They were later awarded bronze medals by the local organizing committee as well.
This match at the 1896 Olympics will forever remain as one of the most intriguing and mysterious matches in the history of football.
