List of men's national association football teams

This is a list of the men's national association football teams in the world.

Members of FIFA affiliated confederations [edit]

Map of the World with the six confederations.

Current members of UAFA

This section lists the current:

• 209 men's national football teams affiliated to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the world's football governing body, through their national football associations.
• 13 men's national football teams who are members or associate members of one of the FIFA affiliated continental confederations, but who are not members of FIFA.

FIFA members are eligible to enter the FIFA World Cup and matches between them are recognized as official international matches. Based on their match results over the previous four-year period, the FIFA World Rankings, published monthly by FIFA, compare the relative strengths of the national teams. National teams who are members (full or associate) of their confederation, but do not have membership of FIFA, are able to compete in confederation championships, but their matches are not full internationals.

The six confederations are:

• Asia – Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
• Africa – Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF)
• North and Central America and the Caribbean – Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF)
• South America – Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL)
• Oceania – Oceania Football Confederation (OFC)
• Europe – Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)
  • Additionally 22 nations in Africa and Asia belong to the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) in addition to their respective regional confederations.

FIFA runs the World Cup as a tournament for national teams to find the world champion. Each confederation also runs its own championship to find the best team from among its members:

• AFC* – Asian Cup-Challenge Cup
• CAF** – Africa Cup of Nations
• CONCACAF – CONCACAF Gold Cup
• CONMEBOL – Copa América
• OFC – OFC Nations Cup
• UEFA – European Championship

*The AFC operates a second international tournament, the AFC Challenge Cup. This is for those national teams that are classed as emerging nations by the AFC. Winners of the Challenge Cup receive an automatic spot at the next Asian Cup
**The CAF operates a second international tournament, The African Nations Championship (sometimes referred to as African Championship of Nations or CHAN) which is played between the best national teams of Africa, exclusively featuring players who are active in the national championships and qualified to play in the ongoing season. Expatriate players, regardless of where they play, even in Africa, may not qualify to take part in the African Championship of Nations.^{[1] [2]}

The current holders of the World Cup are marked by a ♠. The current holders of each confederation's championship are marked by a ♣.

AFC (Asia) [edit]

Due to the geographical size of Asia, the AFC is subdivided into four sub-federations:

• West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) – represents nations at the western extremity of the continent.
• East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) – represents nations in Northeast Asia, plus Guam and Northern Mariana Islands.
• Central and South Asian Football Federation (CSAFF)– represents nations in Central Asia and South Asia.
• ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) – represents nations in Southeast Asia, plus Australia

1: Formerly member of OFC (1966–2006)
2: Member of UAFA
3: Official name used by FIFA and AFC for People's Republic of China
4: Official name used by FIFA and AFC for Republic of China (Taiwan); Formerly member of OFC (1975–1989)
5: Official names used by FIFA and AFC; official names used by EAFF are "Hong Kong, China" (a) and "Macau, China" (b)
6: Official names used by FIFA and AFC for Democratic People's Republic of Korea (a) and Republic of Korea (b)
7: Associate member of AFC but not FIFA member
8: Official name used by FIFA and AFC for national team representing the Palestinian territories

CAF (Africa) [edit]

Due to the geographical size of Africa, CAF is divided into five regional federations:

• Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) – represents nations generally regarded as forming the regions of East Africa and some nations of Central Africa.
• Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) – represents nations generally regarded as forming Southern Africa, as well as island states off the coast of Southern Africa.
• West African Football Union/Union du Football de l'Ouest Afrique (WAFU/UFOA) – represents nations in West Africa.
• Union of North African Federations (UNAF) – represents nations regarded as forming North Africa.
• Union des Fédérations du Football de l'Afrique Centrale (UNIFFAC) – represents some of the nations that form Central Africa.

1: Member of UAFA
2: Official name used by FIFA and CAF for the Republic of the Congo (a) and Democratic Republic of Congo (b)
3: Associate member of CAF but not FIFA member

CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean) [edit]

The CONCACAF federation is divided into three regional federations that have responsibility for part of the region's geographical area:

• Caribbean Football Union (CFU) – represents all nations in the Caribbean
• North American Football Union (NAFU) – represents the teams of Canada, Mexico and the USA.
• Union Centroamericana de Fútbol (UNCAF) – represents the seven nations of Central America

1: Geographically considered as part of North America, but member of the CFU
2: Associate member of CONCACAF but not FIFA member
3: Geographically part of South America, but member of CONCACAF and CFU
4: Full member of CONCACAF but not FIFA member

CONMEBOL (South America) [edit]

Two members of FIFA, Guyana and Suriname, are in South America but are members of CONCACAF rather than CONMEBOL.

OFC (Oceania) [edit]

1: Associate member of OFC but not FIFA member
2: Provisional member of NF-Board
3: Formerly member of AFC (1964-1966)
4: Official name used by FIFA and OFC for French Polynesia

UEFA (Europe) [edit]

1: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Bosnia and Herzegovina
2: Provisional member of UEFA but not FIFA member^[4]
3: Formerly member of AFC (1954–1974); Joined UEFA in 1994
4: Formerly member of AFC (1992–2002)
5: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Republic of Macedonia
6: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Ireland

Teams not affiliated to FIFA confederations [edit]

These national football teams are affiliated to neither FIFA, nor a continental confederation. The teams are not eligible to enter the FIFA World Cup or their continental confederation championships. Teams who are affiliated with FIFA may not compete against these sides without FIFA's prior permission.^[5]

This section lists:

• 5 teams representing sovereign states with full international recognition.
• 3 teams representing states with limited international recognition.

It also discusses the status of football in other fully or limited recognized sovereign states which have never had active national football teams.

Unaffiliated sovereign states [edit]

The football teams that represent the following sovereign states are not members of FIFA or their local confederation:

•  Federated States of Micronesia¹
•  Monaco^{1, 2}
•  Nauru
•  United Kingdom³
•  Vatican City

1. Member of the FIFA Small Nations Working Group^[6]
2. The football federation of Monaco was one of the founder members of the NF-Board in 2001, but resigned from the organization in 2010^[7]
3. There has never been a "United Kingdom national football team" participating in recognized internationals, although three friendly matches have been played under this name. A team representing the entire United Kingdom has only ever competed in the Olympic Games (most recently in the 2012 Games) under the name "Great Britain"; otherwise, the UK is represented by separate teams for each of its constituent countries

The Marshall Islands are the only sovereign nation state which has no recorded national association football team.

Unaffiliated sovereign states with limited international recognition [edit]

Two states with limited international recognition are full members of FIFA and are listed above: Palestine and the Republic of China, the latter under the name "Chinese Taipei" due to the objections of the government of the People's Republic of China. Three further states with limited international recognition have active teams which are not currently affiliated with FIFA or their local confederation.

•  Kosovo
•  Northern Cyprus
•  Western Sahara (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic)

Both Kosovo and Northern Cyprus were members of FIFA's recent unaffiliated nations working group,^[6] though the activities of this are currently suspended.^[8] The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic team had played just one game between 1988 and 2011, but has since been more active.^[9] Although matches against these teams are unofficial, FIFA confirmed in May 2012 that members would be permitted to play friendlies against Kosovo without sanction.^[10]

The three states with limited international recognition in the Caucasus - Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia - have made limited steps towards forming national teams.^[11] To date, Abkazhia and Nagorno-Karabakh have only competed in matches against each other, with the first of these taking place in September 2012.^[12] South Ossetia has sent representative teams for 'mini-football' matches, but has not competed in a full game.^[13] These sides remain unrecognized by FIFA.^[14]

The state of Transnistria, which only has recognition from other states with limited international recognition, has no national football team. The Moldova national team still regularly plays in Transnistria and the side contains a large number of Transnistrian players.^[15]

Others [edit]

FIFA's entry criteria state that:

Any association which is responsible for organising and supervising football in its country may become a member of FIFA. In this context, the expression 'country' shall refer to an independent state recognised by the international community.

—FIFA, Fifa Statutes May 2008

The main condition for joining FIFA is thus general international recognition as a nation state and membership of the UN.^[16] However, this rule is not applied retroactively,^[17] and 24 of FIFA's members are not internationally recognised sovereign nations.^[18]

Non-sovereign associations may still join FIFA in specific circumstances. In particular, an exception is made for associations representing a dependency, which may apply for membership if authorised by the association in its parent state.^[8][17] Most recently, this was allowed for New Caledonia in 2004; this was on the grounds of the distance of New Caledonia from its 'parent' nation, France.^[19] By contrast, both Zanzibar and Gibraltar – who would compete in the same confederation as their parent state – have had their application to join FIFA rejected,^[19] though in 2011, the Court of Arbitration for Sport issued a ruling on the issue of Gibraltar's potential membership of UEFA, stating that it "must do everything in its power to allow Gibraltar entry into the organisation by June 2012".^[8] UEFA's Executive Committee admitted Gibraltar as a provisional member as of the 1 October 2012, pending a vote at its Congress in May 2013 to make it a full member,^[4] allowing the possibility of its admission to FIFA.

A variety of other national, separatist, sub-national and pseudo-national teams compete in football matches outside of FIFA's jurisdiction.^[19] In 2001, the N.F.-Board (Nouvelle Fédération-Board), was founded to promote international football among sovereign nations, unrecognised nations, regions and stateless peoples that are not members of FIFA, and to assist in their possible future membership of FIFA. However, the NF board does not maintain a full list of its members. Twenty five different organisations were listed in their April 2010 rankings,^[20] a further two were not listed but participated in the 2010 VIVA World Cup,^[21] whilst five more are listed as part of the "Consejo Sudamericano de Nuevas Federaciones", which is the South American confederation of NF-Board.^[22]

The nature of these other teams is heterogeneous: whilst some such as Catalonia, Galicia or Tibet play semi-regularly, often against FIFA member nations, others are much less active. For a full list of teams that have been documented, see the list of non-national representative teams in men's football.

Former national football teams [edit]

These national teams no longer exist due to the dissolution of the nation or territory that they represented.

Preceding team	Successor team(s) (inherited position/results)	Other successor team(s)	Notes
Czechoslovakia	Czech Republic  Slovakia		Represented Czechoslovakia until its dissolution into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. Competed as Representation of Czechs and Slovaks for the remainder of their 1994 World Cup qualifying games.
Saar		West Germany	Represented the Saarland Protectorate from 1950 to 1956 before its union with the Federal Republic of Germany
West Germany	Germany		Represented the Federal Republic of Germany from 1950 till 1990, before reunification with East Germany. Was considered a continuation of the team which had represented Germany between 1908 and 1942.
East Germany		Germany	Represented East Germany between 1952 and 1990, before reunification with West Germany.
Ireland	Northern Ireland	Republic of Ireland	Represented Ireland until the secession of the Irish Free State from the United Kingdom in 1922. The team continued to be known as Ireland, selecting some players from the Irish Free State, later the Republic of Ireland, until 1953 when it was renamed Northern Ireland to reflect its geographic mandate.
Malaya	Malaysia		Represented the Federation of Malaya until its union with Sarawak, North Borneo and Singapore to form Malaysia in 1963. Singapore had a separate national team from 1953 and gained independence in 1965.
Tanganyika	Tanzania	Zanzibar	Represented Tanganyika until its union with Zanzibar as Tanzania in 1964. Zanzibar is an associate member of CAF.
North Vietnam	Vietnam		Represented North Vietnam from 1949 till its union with South Vietnam in 1975.
South Vietnam		Vietnam	Represented South Vietnam from 1949 till its union with North Vietnam in 1975.
North Yemen	Yemen		Represented North Yemen from 1965 till its union with South Yemen in 1990.
South Yemen		Yemen	Represented South Yemen from 1965 till its union with North Yemen in 1990.
United Arab Republic	Egypt	Syria	Represented the United Arab Republic from 1958 to 1961 until the secession of Syria. Was considered a continuation of the previous Egypt national football team, which became its successor team. The team continued to be known as the United Arab Republic until 1970.
Soviet Union	CIS	Estonia  Latvia  Lithuania	Represented the Soviet Union from 1924 until its dissolution in 1991. This was considered a continuation of the team that had previously represented the Russian Empire.
CIS	Russia	Armenia  Azerbaijan  Belarus  Georgia  Kazakhstan  Kyrgyzstan  Moldova  Tajikistan  Turkmenistan  Ukraine  Uzbekistan	Represented the Commonwealth of Independent States and Georgia in 1992 until the creation of separate national teams for its constituent nations.
Yugoslavia	Federal Republic of Yugoslavia	Bosnia and Herzegovina  Croatia  Macedonia  Slovenia	Represented Yugoslavia between 1920 and 1992, before the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia into Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Slovenia
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia later renamed Serbia and Montenegro	Serbia	Montenegro	Represented the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, known as Serbia and Montenegro after 2003, between 1992 and 2006 when it was split into Serbia and Montenegro
Netherlands Antilles	Curaçao	Sint Maarten	Represented the Netherlands Antilles until the dissolution of the country in 2010. Formerly known as "Curaçao", this name was restored in March 2011 when the new constituent country of Curaçao took the Netherlands Antilles' place in FIFA and CONCACAF. The team representing Sint Maarten is a full member of CONCACAF, but not of FIFA.

New names [edit]

In addition to the above, other nations have been renamed:

•  Belgian Congo →  Congo-Léopoldville in 1960 →  Congo-Kinshasa in 1963 →  Zaire in 1971 →  Congo DR in 1997
• British Gambia →  Gambia in 1965
•  British Guiana →  Guyana in 1966
•  Burma →  Myanmar in 1989
•  Cambodia →  Khmer Republic in 1970 →  Kampuchea in 1975 →  Cambodia in 1979
•  Ceylon →  Sri Lanka in 1972
•  Czechoslovakia (1918–1939) → Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1939 →  Czechoslovakia in 1945 →  Representation of Czechs and Slovaks in 1993
•  Dahomey →  Benin in 1975
•  Dutch East Indies →  Indonesia in 1945
•  FR Yugoslavia →  Serbia and Montenegro in 2003
• FLN team →  Algeria in 1962
• French Somaliland →  Djibouti in 1977
•  French Togoland →  Togo in 1960
•  Gold Coast →  Ghana in 1957
•  Irish Free State →  Republic of Ireland in 1937
•  Ivory Coast →  Côte d'Ivoire in 1983¹
• Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes → Yugoslavia in 1929
• Madagascar →  Malagasy Republic in 1958→ Madagascar in 1975
• Middle Congo →  Congo-Brazzaville in 1960→  Congo in 1992
•  New Hebrides →  Vanuatu in 1980
•  Northern Rhodesia →  Zambia in 1964
•  Nyasaland →  Malawi in 1966
•  Mandatory Palestine →  Israel in 1948
• Portuguese Guinea →  Guinea-Bissau in 1975
•  Russia →  Soviet Union in 1923
•  Southern Rhodesia →  Rhodesia in 1964 →  Zimbabwe in 1980
• Surinam → Suriname in 1954
•  United Arab Republic →  Egypt in 1971
•  Upper Volta →  Burkina Faso in 1984
•  Western Samoa →  Samoa in 1996

1: Still commonly called Ivory Coast in English-speaking countries

See also [edit]

• National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup
• List of non-national representative teams in men's football
• List of FIFA country codes
• List of women's national football teams
• NF-Board
• Non-FIFA Football

References [edit]

Sources [edit]

• List of associations, at FIFA's site
• List of associations of almost Football national teams

v t e International association football FIFA World Cup Confederations Cup U-20 World Cup U-17 World Cup Olympics Minor tournaments World Rankings Player of the Year FIFA Ballon d'Or Teams Debuts Competitions Federations Codes Asia AFC – Asian Cup U-22 U-19 U-16 U-14 Africa CAF – Africa Cup of Nations U-23 U-20 U-17 North America, Central America and the Caribbean CONCACAF – Gold Cup U-20 U-17 South America CONMEBOL – Copa América U-20 U-17 U-15 Oceania OFC – Nations Cup U-20 U-17 Europe UEFA – European Championship U-21 U-19 U-17 Non-FIFA NF-Board – Viva World Cup IGA Island Games Games All-Africa Games Asian Games CARIFTA Games East Asian Games Francophonie Games IOIG Lusophony Games Mediterranean Games Pan American Games Pan Arab Games Pacific Games South Asian Games Southeast Asian Games See also International women's football