Football at the 1992 Summer Olympics

1992 Summer Olympics Football Tournament

Tournament details
Host country	Spain
Dates	24 July – 8 August 1992
Teams	16 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	5 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Spain (1st title)
Runners-up	Poland
Third place	Ghana
Fourth place	Australia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	87 (2.72 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Andrzej Juskowiak (7 goals)
← 1988 1996 (men) →

The football competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics featured 16 national sides from the six continental confederations. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four and each group played a round-robin tournament. At the end of the group stage, the top two teams advanced to the knockout stage, beginning with the quarter-finals and culminating with the gold medal match at Camp Nou on 8 August 1992.^[1]

For the first time, an age limit has been set for participants under the age of 23 (Under-23), which has been used ever since.

Spain became the first host country to win the gold medal in an Olympic football tournament since Belgium in 1920, an achievement which would not be repeated again until Brazil won it in 2016. As of 2023, Spain is still the last European side that won the gold medal at men's football event in the Summer Olympics.

Notably, these were the first matches played with football's new back-pass rule^[2] and was the last Olympic football competition which was open to men only before the introduction of a women’s tournament four years later.