Olympics-Soccer-Factbox on soccer at the Games

Aug 6 (Reuters) - Factbox on soccer at the Beijing Olympics:

HISTORY

Men's soccer was a demonstration sport in the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens when a Greek team were beaten 15-0 by a Danish side. It became an official Olympic sport in the 1908 Games in London.

Women's soccer was added to the Olympic programme at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Until the 1984 Games, participation was restricted to amateur players and Olympic Football was dominated by eastern European countries.

EVENTS

Sixteen men's teams and 12 women's compete in 11-a-side tournaments. Each men's squad of 18 players must have at least 15 members aged 23 or under in the year of the Games. Women players must be aged at least 16 in the Olympic year.

The men's competition has four rounds and the women's has three.

Men's - Australia, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, China, Argentina, United States, New Zealand, Honduras and Brazil. Women's - Japan, Nigeria, North Korea, Germany, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Argentina, United States, Canada, Brazil and China

2004 CHAMPIONS

Men: Argentina

Women: United States

OLYMPIC PROGRAMME (FINALS ONLY)

Aug. 21 - women's

Aug. 23 - men's

VENUES (capacity in brackets)

National Stadium (91,000)

Shenyang Olympic Stadium (80,000)

Beijing Workers' Stadium (62,000)

Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium (60,000)

Shanghai Stadium (56,000)

Qinghuangdao Olympic Sports Centre Stadium (33,000)

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

www.fifa.com

(Editing by Padraic Halpin) (For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road to Beijing" here; and see our blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)