Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification Zealand qualify for the Olympics. Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification The men's qualification for the 2012 Summer Olympics. FIFA restricted entry to players born after 1 January 1989. A total of 16 teams participated in the finals of the Olympic tournament for men. Of the six regional confederations, three (CONCACAF, AFC and OFC) ran dedicated qualification competitions for the Olympic tournament, while the other three used their own existing youth tournaments as qualifiers. UEFA announced that the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship tournament in Denmark would also serve as the qualifying tournament for the Olympics.
Soviet Union national football team finishing the group in the first place. It seemed like the Soviet side managed to forget their unsuccessful performance in 1982, but they lost to surprise package Belgium 3–4 in the round of 16 after extra time. Despite their poor performance in the cup, this team was the best scoring Soviet team in World Cup history, with 12 goals. After failing to qualify for three consecutive Europe Cups (1976, 1980, 1984), the Soviets managed to qualify for the 1988 competition, the last time the Soviet Union national football team took part in the European Football Championship. The finals were held