How England football team qualified for Paris Olympics 2024 but were BLOCKED from playing by other nations

ENGLAND qualified to play in the men’s football at the Paris Olympics 2024.

However, they were blocked from playing as part of Team GB.

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England secured their spot among the 16 nations in this summer’s competition in France.

They did so by winning the Under-21 European Championships last year.

Curtis Jones scored the only goal of the game in the final against Spain – deflecting in Cole Palmer’s free-kick.

However, the Young Lions had James Trafford to thank for holding on to the win as he saved a 96th-minute penalty in Georgia.

Under Olympic football qualification rules, that meant England did enough to qualify for Paris 2024 – where the U23 teams are permitted three overage players.

However, in the Olympics, England compete as part of Great Britain – as they did at London 2012 under manager Stuart Pearce.

And an English team is not allowed to play under the Team GB flag in the Olympics because there is no agreement in place between the FAs of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Therefore, the spot had to be foregone, with Uefa given three places on top of hosts France.

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They were filled by the three other semi-finalists in the U21 Euros – Spain, Ukraine and Israel.

France’s side are being managed at their home Olympics by Thierry Henry with Michael Olise in the squad and Alexandre Lacazette the captain.

Spain’s team features Euro 2024 winners Fermin Lopez and Alex Baena while Argentina boast Manchester City stars past and present, Nicolas Otamendi and Julian Alvarez.

However, the World Cup and Copa America holders’ opening game with Morocco descended into chaos.

The Argentine national anthem was booed in Saint-Etienne before kick-off – likely a response from the French crowd to the racist chant sung by the South Americans after winning their continental tournament.

Then Argentina scored what they thought was a dramatic, controversial equaliser in the 106th minute after a full quarter of an hour of injury time was added.

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That prompted wild scenes inside the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard with a furious fan pitch invasion and firecrackers and water bottles thrown.

The two teams were hurried off the pitch as riot police stormed on to restore order.

However, the match was “interrupted” for more than an hour before continuing in an empty stadium – and the referee eventually chalked off the goal after a VAR review.

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