The Games were the largest sporting event to be hosted in the United Kingdom since the 1948 Summer Olympics.

Sheffield City Council saw the event as a catalyst for urban renewal and regeneration after industrial decline.

[1] More than 3,300 athletes took part from 101 countries, including the first appearance of a unified German team at a Summer Universiade.

[3] Sheffield was selected as the host for the 1991 Summer Universiade at anannual meeting of FISU's (Federation Internationale du Sport Universitaire) Executive Committee in the city in February 1987.

[4] Despite initial excitement, lack of central government funding and sponsorship led to the organising company, Universiade GB, going into liquidation in the summer of 1990 with debts of more than £1 million.

The football tournament was held across Yorkshire; at Huddersfield, Chesterfield, Wakefield, Bradford, Scunthorpe and Stocksbridge, with the final played at Hillsborough.

The opening ceremony included a performance honouring Sheffield's industrial heritage, with participants wearing flat caps and waistcoats and carrying hammers, choreographed by Judy Chabola, who had been involved with the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.