Olympic football draws set for April

The draws for the football tournaments at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games will be held in April, the sport's national governing body said Tuesday.

The Korea Football Association (KFA) said that FIFA, the sport's top governing body, decided to have the Olympic football draws at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, the host city of the 31st Olympic Games, at 10:30 p.m. on April 14 (Korean time).

South Korea have qualified for the men's event, and the women's team will have their qualifying tournament later this month in Japan.

For men's, 16 teams will be divided into four groups and the top two teams will advance to the knockout stage. There will be three groups of four nations in women's football.

The details about seeds and the drawing process will be announced later.

South Korean men qualified for their eighth consecutive Olympics after finishing second at the Asian Football Confederation

(AFC) U-23 Championship in January, which also served as the regional qualifying tournament for Rio. The top three teams at the AFC tournament earned their tickets to Brazil.

The men's team joins other 14 countries for the Summer Games:

host Brazil, Japan, Iraq, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Honduras, Mexico, Argentina, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, Sweden and Fiji.

The final ticket will go to the winner of the two-leg playoff between Colombia and the United States next month.

South Korean women haven't played in the Olympics yet. The Asian qualification starts next Monday and ends March 9 in Osaka, Japan. South Korea will play North Korea, Japan, Australia, China and Vietnam. The top two teams will qualify for the Rio Games.

So far, Brazil, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Canada, the United States, Colombia, France, Germany and New Zealand have booked their tickets to Brazil in women's football. (Yonhap)