 The teams were drawn into two groups of four and each group played a round-robin tournament (which was held in Miami, Orlando, Birmingham and Washington, D.C.).At the end of the group stage, the top two teams advanced to the knockout stage (which was held at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia), beginning with the semi-finals and culminating with the gold medal match on August 1, 1996.Eight teams qualified for the 1996 Olympic women's football tournament, the hosts United States and the seven other best ranked teams at the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup.