UEFA banned national team from Euros only for their replacement to win the entire tournament

UEFA caused footballing history when it banned a national team from competing in the European Championships, with the replacement ending up winning the entire tournament.

The Euros is historic win the competition, including Greece in the 2004 tournament when they defeated Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal to win the trophy.

But it was 12 years earlier that one of the more controversial moments surrounding the tournament took place.

This was when Denmark were included in the 1992 Euros despite not having won their qualifying group to gain a spot.

Denmark finished second behind Yugoslavia in the qualifying group but a decision was taken to ban the latter from the 1992 tournament, which led to Denmark's qualification and eventual victory of the entire event.

Why were Yugoslavia banned from Euro 1992?

Yugoslavia qualified to the tournament as winners of Group 4 with 14 points. They beat Denmark once in the qualifying round, before losing to them the second time.

They had done enough to win the group and were set to compete in the Euros as FR Yugoslavia. However, they were banned from the tournament due to the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars, with UN sanctions imposed on the country.

The war led to dissolution of Yugoslavia and formation of independent successor states.

How did Denmark qualify for Euro 1992?

Denmark finished just a point behind Yugoslavia in the qualifying group.

However, Yugoslavia being banned from the tournament led to a space being opened up and UEFA decided to give Denmark that spot as the finished second in the same group.

The Danish League had only finished two weeks before the tournament and a few players were on short breaks, but the team made the competition in time for the first game against England.

How Denmark won Euro 1992

Denmark were placed in a tough group with teams like Sweden, France and England. However, they did enough to qualify through the group stage despite having only one win over France.

The Euros only had two groups of four teams and the top two from each group qualified to the Semi-finals.

Waiting for Denmark in the semis were a Netherland team that had the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten and Ronald Koeman playing for them.

The Danes took an early lead with a fifth minute goal, but it was cancelled out in the 23rd minute by Bergkamp.

Denmark then went on to score again in the 33rd minute, but Netherlands took the game into penalties after Rijkard scored an 86th minute equaliser.

Peter Schmeichel saved van Basten's penalty to send Denmark into the final where they would face Germany.

The Germans had a stacked team, but Denmark were brilliant in the final and scored two goals to win the tournament in style.

Their win in the 1992 Euros remains their only competitive trophy, but is considered to be one of the most unexpected wins considering they had been a late addition.