The battle for places in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games men’s football tournament hots up this Wednesday 17 June, with the opening of the final phase of the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in the Czech Republic. The tournament runs until 30 June with four Rio 2016 qualifying places up for grabs.

Seven teams are in the Olympic running, including Germany, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Sweden and the European Championship host country, the Czech Republic. England will also play for the European title, but will not be able to qualify for the Olympic Games as the football federations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have not come to an agreement about how to represent Great Britain at Rio 2016.  

Excluding England, the four top-placed European men’s teams will join Brazil and Argentina in the official line-up for the men's football at the Rio 2016 Games.

The European Under-21 Championship kicked off more than two years ago with 52 teams participating in an initial qualification tournament, held between March 2013 and October 2014. This determined the seven teams who will join the final tournament hosts in the Czech Republic this month.The eight finalists were then divided into two groups of four teams. In the final stage, the teams in each group will play matches against each other in a round-robin system, and the top two teams from each group will move forward to the semi-finals.

All four semi-finalists will automatically qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic men’s football tournament. If England (who are ineligible for the Olympics) go through to the semi-finals, a play-off match between the third-placed teams in each group will decide the final Olympic spot.

Four more continental championships are scheduled to decide the remaining Rio 2016 men’s football vacancies. The three best teams from each of the Asia and Africa championships, and the two best-placed teams the North, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) championship, will qualify for next year’s Olympics. From Oceania, only the champion will go through. The third-placed team from the CONCACAF qualifier will also fight for an Olympic spot in a play-off against Colombia – the second-placed team from the South American Championship which took place earlier this year. As host country, Brazil has its Rio 2016 spot guaranteed.

The Olympic classification system for the women's tournament is similar. So far in the women’s category, Brazil and Colombia are the only countries to have already booked their Olympic slots. However, as of 5 July, three more women’s teams will have qualified via the FIFA Women’s World Cup which is already underway.

Rio2016.com is not an absolute authority on qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is an ongoing process. Final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games). The qualification systems are defined by each sport’s respective International Federation and the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee, and are subject to change. When an athlete or team wins a quota place for their nation, the final decision on whether this ‘slot’ is used and which athletes are sent is taken by the respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee (NOC or NPC). Even when athletes win a ‘nominal’ place for themselves, NOCs/NPCs may have to decide who to send if the number of qualified athletes from one country exceeds the quota.