Two former Olympics football winners 'banned' from 2024 games

Two teams who have previously won the Olympics football will not be able to participate in the 2024 edition.

On Friday night, the official opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games will be held in Paris.

For the first time, the opening ceremony will not be held inside a stadium, instead, it will take place along the river Seine at the heart of the French capital.

Ahead of the opening ceremony, some competitions have already begun.

On Wednesday, the football event kicked off with major controversy after the Argentina vs Morocco match experienced a long delay.

Host nation France, managed by Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, beat the United States 3-0.

However, there will be no Team GB and Team Russia in the football event for the 2024 games.

In fact, there has only been one Team GB squad taking part in the football since 1972.

The likes of Aaron Ramsey, Daniel Sturridge and Micah Richards were included in the Team GB squad that featured in the 2012 Olympics.

The reason why there will be no Team GB football squad is due to the issue related to FIFA and the Home Nations - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

All four nations need to agree to allow their players to feature in order for Team GB to have an Olympic team.

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In terms of Russia, although individual athletes can take part as Individual Neutral Athletes, they are banned from sending teams due to their invasion of Ukraine.

A report from the Daily Mail stated: “Russia and Belarus were banned from sending teams to the Games because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has been heavily supported by their neighbouring country Belarus.

“Despite no teams being allowed, the Olympic committee has invited the countries to send individual athletes, however, they must meet a strict criteria which has been set out by the organisation which includes whether the specific athlete has was or military links.”

In total, there will be 15 Russians and 17 Belarusians participating in the Paris Olympics, which is a huge drop from the 335 Russians and 105 Belarusians from the Tokyo Games.