It was won by Uruguay against Argentina, and was the last Olympic football tournament before the inception of the FIFA World Cup, which was held for the first time in 1930.

Increasingly, FIFA had sought to appease those nations that required concessions in order that players could participate in the Olympics.

On 17 February 1928, the four "home" associations of the United Kingdom, voted unanimously to withdraw from FIFA in opposition to the manner in which the governing body was seeking to dictate on such matters and, as was noted "that (the four Associations) be free to conduct their affairs in the way their long experience has shown them to be desirable".

[3] Henri Delaunay, president of the French Football Federation felt that FIFA needed to organise an international tournament outside of the Olympics.

In 1927 FIFA asked the Olympic committee to accept the concept of broken time payments as an overriding condition for the competing members.

Upon returning home in 1924 Uruguay had ceded to a request to play a disbelieving Argentina in a two staged contest; Argentinian fans hurling missiles at Jose Leandro Andrade to the extent that he had with adopt a position deep in-field.

[5] Uruguay, the defending Olympic champions, once again sent a side made up, predominantly, by the personnel of their two biggest clubs: Nacional and, to a lesser degree, Peñarol.

The Italian coach, Augusto Rangone, had been a beneficiary of the national federation's decision in 1923 to permit subsidies to cover player's lost wages.

For two years his forward line had remained comparatively the same: Adolfo Baloncieri, Virgilio Levratto; even the loss of the Argentinian-Italian Julio Libonatti before the tournament was made good by the inclusion of Angelo Schiavio.

Uruguay immediately dispatched the hosts, the Netherlands, 2–0 in front of 40,000 people with none of the controversy that had surrounded their previous encounter at the 1924 Summer Olympics.

In the first game they reached a tie with the Spanish fighting back from a half time deficit to force a replay.