The European Qualifiers for men's football competitions at the 1988 Summer Olympics to be held in Seoul. The tournament took place from 10 September 1986 to 31 May 1988 including a preliminary round. At the end, five countries qualified including West Germany, Italy, Sweden, Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia.
The draw for the tournament took place on 27 May 1986 in Mexico City just before the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.[1] Out of 34 European football nations at the time in tournament participated only 27 with five allowing for qualification to the Summer Olympics football tournament.[1] All participants were split in five groups of five teams with winners of each qualify for the Olympics. Four teams were contesting two berths in two of five groups.
Seven football nations that did not participate included four team of British islands (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales) that refused to form the unified Great Britain team required by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Malta (never fielded its team previously), Luxembourg (not fielding in 1980s), and Albania (political restrictions since 1972).[1]
Turkey and Eastern Bloc nations such as East Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union, that boycotted the 1984 Olympics football tournament in Los Angeles, returned to the Olympic competition.[2][3]
Summary
Group winners from the five-team groups qualified directly for the 1988 Summer Olympics
^The Poland vs Denmark match on originally ended 0-2, but FIFA announced on 13 November 1987 that Denmark had fielded an ineligible player (Per Frimann), and thus the result was overturned, and Poland were awarded the match by a default score of 2-0.[4]
