1992 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

1992 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
Tournament details
Dates11 September 1990 – 18 December 1991 (qualifications)
10 March – 3 June (finals)
Teams32 (from 1 confederation)
Final positions
Champions Italy (1st title)
Runners-up Sweden
Tournament statistics
Matches played111
Goals scored296 (2.67 per match)
Attendance128,567 (1,158 per match)
Top scorer(s)Italy Renato Buso (3 goals)
Best player(s)Italy Renato Buso[1]
1990
1994
Men's European Qualifier
Tournament details
Teams28 (from 1 confederation)
1988
1996 →

The 1992 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which spanned two years (1990–92), had 32 entrants. Malta and Israel competed for the first time. This was also the first appearance of the unified Germany team since 1964. Italy U-21s won the competition.

The competition doubled as the European qualifying stage for the Olympic Football Tournament, which until 1992 existed as a separate tournament. Hosts Spain qualify automatically and the best four eligible nations would qualify automatically. The fifth best European team would play-off against the best Oceania (OFC) team for another Olympics place. Beside the hosting Spain, teams of Scotland, England, Luxembourg and San-Marino did not take part in Olympic qualifications (not members of IOC[2]). Teams of Northern Ireland, Wales and Faroes Islands did not take part in this competition at all.

The 32 national teams were divided into eight groups (six groups of 4 + one group of 3 + one group of 5). The group winners played off against each other on a two-legged home-and-away basis until the winner was decided. There was no finals tournament or 3rd-place playoff.

  1. ^ "1992: Renato Buso". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 1 June 1992. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  2. ^ Football Qualifying Tournament. Games of the XXV. Olympiad. www.rsssf.org