The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Denmark won the 1992 championship, one of the country's few major football triumphs. The team had qualified only as a result of the breakup and warfare in Yugoslavia. Eight national teams contested the finals tournament.
Sweden was chosen over Spain to host the event. Spain was at a disadvantage as they had already been chosen to host the EXPO 1992 and the 1992 Summer Olympic Games.[1]
Seven of the eight teams had to qualify for the final stage; Sweden qualified automatically as hosts of the event. The USSR qualified for the finals shortly before the break-up of the country, and took part in the tournament under the banner of the Commonwealth of Independent States before the former Soviet republics formed their own national teams after the competition. The CIS team represented the following Soviet republics: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan,Moldova and Tajikistan. Four out of 15 ex-republics were not members of the CIS: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania did not send their players, Georgia was not a member of the CIS at the time, but Georgian Kakhaber Tskhadadze was a part of the squad.
Originally, Yugoslavia qualified for the final stage, but due to the Yugoslav wars, the team was disqualified and their qualifying group's runner-up, Denmark, took part in the championship. They shocked the continent when Peter Schmeichel saved Marco van Basten's penalty in the semi-final penalty shoot-out against the Netherlands, thus defeating the defending European champions. The shock was compounded when Denmark went on to defeat the reigning world champions Germany 2-0 to win the European title.
The official anthem of the tournament was "More Than a Game", performed by Towe Jaarnek and Peter Jöback. It was the last tournament to use the UEFA plus flag logo, and the last before the tournament came to be known as "Euro" (it is known as "Euro 1992" only retrospectively). It was also the first major football competition in which the players had their names printed on their backs, at around the time that it was becoming a trend in club football across Europe.
