This is a list of the men's national association football teams in the world.
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There are currently 208 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. They 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.
Each of these national teams is also affiliated to one of the six confederations, according to their continental zones:
In addition, 22 Arab nations in Africa and Asia belong to the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) in addition to their own regional confederation.
Below is a list of the national football teams by their confederations. Some national teams are members (full or associate) of their confederation, but do not have membership of FIFA; these are listed with a note explaining this. There are also notes of teams who have left one confederation to join another.
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:
Due to the geographical size of Asia, the AFC is subdivided into four sub-federations:
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
Due to the geographical size of Africa, CAF is divided into six regional federations:
1: Member of UAFA
2: Official name used by FIFA and CAF for Democratic Republic of Congo
3: Associate member of CAF but not FIFA member
The CONCACAF federation is divided into three regional federations that have responsibility for part of the region's geographical area:
1: Geographically considered as part of North America, but member of the CFU
2: Geographically part of South America, but member of CONCACAF (CFU)
3: Full member of CONCACAF but not FIFA member
1: Associate member of OFC but not FIFA member
2: Provisional member of NF-Board
3: AFC member from 1964 to 1966
4: Official name used by FIFA and OFC for French Polynesia
1: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Ireland
2: Formerly member of AFC (1954–1974); Unaffiliated (1974–1991)
3: Formerly member of AFC (1998–2002)
4: Official name used by FIFA and UEFA for Republic of Macedonia
These national teams are not affiliated to FIFA. Because their national associations are not FIFA members, they are ineligible to enter the FIFA World Cup, and their matches are not recognized as official.
A number of national teams that are members of their local confederation are not members of FIFA, and so are not eligible to enter the World Cup. They are however permitted entry to their confederation championship. These national teams are listed in italics in each confederation above, along with a note explaining their status.
The football teams that represent the following sovereign nations are not members of FIFA or their local confederation:
1. Member of the FIFA Small Nations Working Group [2]
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[3]
3. South Sudan has submitted applications to join both CAF and FIFA that are expected to be ratified in early 2012[4]
4. 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 qualification for the 1972 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 national association football team with any records.
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. Two further states with limited international recognition have active teams which are not currently affiliated with FIFA or their local confederation. Both of these were members of FIFA's recent unaffiliated nations working group, [2] though the activities of this are currently suspended. [5]
In addition, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic had a team which played in the 1980s but has since been inactive, whilst four further states with limited international recognition have never had an active football team: Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia and Transnistria.
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. [6] However, this rule is not applied retroactively,[7] and 24 of FIFA's members are not internationally recognised sovereign nations.[8]
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.[7][5] 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.[9] 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, [9] 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".[5]
A variety of other national, separatist, sub-national and pseudo-national teams compete in football matches outside of FIFA's jurisdiction.[9] 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,[10] a further two were not listed but participated in the 2010 VIVA World Cup,[11] whilst five more are listed as part of the "Consejo Sudamericano de Nuevas Federaciones", which is the South American confederation of NF-Board.[12]
The nature of these other teams is heterogeneous: whilst some such as Catalonia 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.
These national teams no longer exist due to the dissolution of the nation or territory that they represented.
| Team | Successor team(s) inheriting team's results |
Other successor teams | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Czechoslovakia | Czech Republic Slovakia |
Represented Czechoslovakia until its dissolution into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993 | |
| 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. |
| Tanganyika | Tanzania | Represented Tanganyika until its union with Zanzibar as Tanzania in 1964. The Zanzibar national football team continues to play, but is unaffiliated to any FIFA sanctioned bodies. It was an associate member of the CAF between 2007–2009 and is a provisional member of the NF-board. | |
| 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. |
In addition to the above, other nations have been renamed:
1: Still commonly called Ivory Coast in English-speaking countries
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1.Unincorporated organized territory of the United States
2.Special administrative region of China
3.Sovereign state with limited international recognition
4.British overseas territory
5.Constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
6.Unincorporated unorganized territory of the United States
7.State in free association with New Zealand
8.Overseas collectivity of France
9.Constituent country of the United Kingdom
10.Constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark
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