From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of the men's national football (soccer) teams in the world.

Contents 1 Current FIFA affiliates 1.1 AFC (Asia) 1.2 CAF (Africa) 1.3 CONCACAF (North and Central America and Caribbean) 1.4 CONMEBOL (South America) 1.5 OFC (Oceania) 1.6 UEFA (Europe) 2 Teams not affiliated to FIFA 2.1 Associate members 2.2 NF-Board 2.2.1 Federations 2.2.1.1 CSANF 2.3 Currently unaffiliated sovereign nations 2.4 Teams of non-sovereign or unrecognized nations 3 Former national football teams 3.1 Czechoslovakia 3.2 French Equatorial Africa 3.3 French West Africa 3.4 Germany 3.5 Ireland 3.6 Korea 3.7 Manchuria 3.8 Netherlands Antilles 3.9 Sikkim 3.10 Tanzania 3.11 USSR 3.12 Vietnam 3.13 Yemen 3.14 Yugoslavia 3.15 New names 4 References 5 See also 6 Sources

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:

• 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)

Below is a list of the national football teams by their confederations. Some national teams are full members 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.

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

• West Asian Football Federation - respresents nations at the western extremity of the continent. The WAFF has six members, but the AFC groups those non members into a single geographical region.
• East Asian Football Federation - represents nations generally agreed to constitute the "far east".
• Central and South Asian Football Federation - represents nations in central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
• ASEAN Football Federation - represents nations from Southeast Asia

Afghanistan  Australia1  Bahrain  Bangladesh  Bhutan  Brunei  Cambodia  China PR  Chinese Taipei2  Guam  Hong Kong  India

Indonesia  Iran3  Iraq  Japan  Jordan  Korea DPR  Korea Republic  Kuwait  Kyrgyzstan  Laos  Lebanon  Macau

Malaysia  Maldives  Mongolia  Myanmar  Nepal  Oman  Pakistan  Palestine  Philippines  Qatar  Saudi Arabia  Singapore

Sri Lanka  Syria  Tajikistan  Thailand  Timor-Leste  Turkmenistan  United Arab Emirates  Uzbekistan  Vietnam  Yemen

1: Formerly member of OFC (Joined AFC in 2006)
2: Official name of the national team of the Republic of China (Taiwan); OFC member 1975-1989
3: Iran is member of two sub-federations.

NB:  Northern Mariana Islands is an associate member of the EAFF, but also has associate membership of the OFC

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

• Confederation of East and Central African Football Associations - represents nations generally regarded as forming the regions of East Africa and some nations of Central Africa.
• Confederation of Southern African Football Associations - represents nations generally regarded as forming Southern Africa, as well as island states off the coast of Southern Africa.
• Confederation of West African Football Associations - one of two bodies that represent nations in West Africa.
• Union of North African Federations - represents nations regarded as forming North Africa.
• Union des Fédérations du Football de l'Afrique Centrale - represents some of the nations that form Central Africa.
• Union du Football de l'Ouest Afrique - one of two bodies that represent nations in West Africa.

Algeria  Angola  Benin  Botswana  Burkina Faso  Burundi  Cameroon  Cape Verde  Central African Republic  Chad  Comoros  Côte d'Ivoire  Congo  Congo DR  Djibouti

Egypt  Equatorial Guinea  Eritrea  Ethiopia  Gabon  Gambia  Ghana  Guinea  Guinea-Bissau  Kenya  Lesotho  Liberia  Libya  Madagascar  Malawi

Mali  Mauritania  Mauritius  Morocco  Mozambique  Namibia  Niger  Nigeria  Réunion1  Rwanda  São Tomé and Príncipe  Senegal  Seychelles  Sierra Leone  Somalia

South Africa  Sudan  Swaziland  Tanzania  Togo  Tunisia  Uganda  Zambia  Zanzibar1, 2  Zimbabwe

1: Associate member of CAF but not FIFA member
2: Provisional member of NF-Board

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

• Caribbean Football Union - represents all nations in the Caribbean
• North American Football Union - represents the three sovereign nations of North America
• Union Centroamericana de Fútbol - represents the seven nations of Central America

Anguilla  Antigua and Barbuda  Aruba  Bahamas  Barbados  Belize  Bermuda  British Virgin Islands  Canada  Cayman Islands

Costa Rica  Cuba  Dominica  Dominican Republic  El Salvador  French Guiana1  Grenada  Guadeloupe1  Guatemala  Guyana

Haiti  Honduras  Jamaica  Martinique1  Mexico  Montserrat  Netherlands Antilles  Nicaragua  Panama  Puerto Rico

Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Lucia  Saint-Martin1  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  Sint Maarten1  Suriname  Trinidad and Tobago  Turks and Caicos Islands  USA  U.S. Virgin Islands

1: Full CONCACAF member but not FIFA member.

•  Argentina
•  Bolivia
•  Brazil
•  Chile
•  Colombia
•  Ecuador
•  Paraguay
•  Peru
•  Uruguay
•  Venezuela

American Samoa  Cook Islands  Fiji  Kiribati1, 2  Federated States of Micronesia1  New Caledonia  New Zealand  Niue1  Northern Mariana Islands1, 3

Palau1  Papua New Guinea  Samoa  Solomon Islands  Tahiti 4  Tonga  Tuvalu1  Vanuatu

1: Associate member of OFC but not FIFA member
2: Provisional member of NF-Board
3: Northern Mariana Islands is also an associate member of EAFF
4: Official Football Team Name of French Polynesia since 1970

Albania  Andorra  Armenia  Austria  Azerbaijan  Belarus  Belgium  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Bulgaria  Croatia  Cyprus  Czech Republic  Denmark  England

Estonia  Faroe Islands  Finland  France  Georgia  Germany  Greece  Hungary  Iceland  Republic of Ireland  Israel1  Italy  Kazakhstan2  Latvia

Liechtenstein  Lithuania  Luxembourg  FYR Macedonia  Malta  Moldova  Montenegro  Netherlands  Northern Ireland  Norway  Poland  Portugal  Romania  Russia

San Marino  Scotland  Serbia  Slovakia  Slovenia  Spain  Sweden  Switzerland  Turkey  Ukraine  Wales

1: Formerly member of AFC (OFC 1972-1994; Joined UEFA in 1994)
2: Formerly member of AFC (Joined UEFA in 2002)

These national teams are not affiliated to FIFA or their local confederation. 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. Some of these teams are affiliated to the NF-Board.

These teams represent sovereign nations or territories: they have full, associate or provisional membership of their local confederations, but are not members of FIFA:

•  French Guiana¹
•  Guadeloupe¹
•  Kiribati²
•  Martinique¹
•  Federated States of Micronesia²
•  Niue²
•  Northern Mariana Islands²
•  Palau²
•  Réunion³
•  Saint-Martin¹
•  Sint Maarten¹
• Tuvalu²
•  Zanzibar³

1: Full member of CONCACAF
2: Associate member of OFC
3: Associate member of CAF

These teams are full or provisional members of the Nouvelle Fédération-Board, an organisation 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.

Full Members  Chagos Islands1  Greenland  Monaco  Occitania  Rijeka  Romani people  Sápmi  Somaliland  South Moluccas  Southern Cameroons  Tibet  Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus  West Papua

Provisional Members  Casamance  Chechnya  Gozo  Easter Island  Kiribati  Maasai  Western Sahara  Zanzibar Republic of Saugeais South Lower Saxony  Sealand  Wallonia  Yap

1: Team name of British Indian Ocean Territory.

The NF-Board have begun to mirror the structure of FIFA with the admittance of regional confederations to its structure. At present, it has one confederation affiliated, the Consejo Sudamericano de Nuevas Federaciones (CSNAF), with 17 members from South America. A second confederation, the Confederation of European New Federations (CENF) is in discussions to join the NF-Board.

Aymaras Fernando de Noronha Guaranì Ascension Island  Easter Island  Falkland Islands Galapagos Islands Isla Margarita Juan Fernández Islands

Quechuas Magellanes Region Mapuche Isla Martín García  Saint Helena San Andrés y Providencia South Georgia Tristan da Cunha

The football teams that represent the following sovereign nations are not members of FIFA, the NF-Board, or their local confederation:

•  Nauru
•  Vatican City

The  Marshall Islands are the only sovereign nation state which has no national football team with any records.

The following teams are either recognised in tables of international football teams, or operate as if they were full national teams, although the territories or ethnic groupings they represent are not sovereign nations.

•  Falkland Islands
•  Gibraltar^[1]
•  Guernsey
•  Isle of Man
•  Jersey
•  Mayotte
•  Saint Pierre and Miquelon
•  Wallis and Futuna

Further information: List of non-national representative teams in men's football

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

•  Czechoslovakia

Dissolved in 1993 into the independent nations of  Czech Republic and  Slovakia.

FIFA recognizes the Czech Republic as the successor of the Czechoslovakia national team and attributes its records to it.

Between 1918 and 1920 played international matches as Bohemia; between 1939 and 1945 as Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ; and in 1993 as Czech And Slovak Republic.

• French Equatorial Africa

Dissolved in 1960 into the four independent nations of  Congo,  Gabon,  Central African Republic,  Chad.

FIFA recognizes  Congo as the successor of the French Equatorial Africa national team and attributes its records to it.

• French West Africa

Dissolved in 1960 into the nine independent nations of  Mali,  Senegal,  Mauritania,  Guinea,  Burkina Faso,  Benin,  Togo,  Côte d'Ivoire,  Niger.

FIFA recognizes  Mali as the successor of the French West Africa national team and attributes its records to it.

•  East Germany
•  West Germany

Merged in October 1990 to form the unified national team of  Germany.

FIFA recognizes Germany as the successor of the West Germany national team and attributes their records to it.

 Germany was the official name until 1949 when it became  West Germany.

•  Saarland

Reintegrated in 1957 into  West Germany.

•  Ireland

Dissolved in 1922 into  Northern Ireland and  Republic of Ireland.

FIFA recognizes  Northern Ireland as the successor of  Ireland and attributes its record to it.

Between 1922 and 1937 Ireland played international matches as Irish Free State.

• Korea

Dissolved in 1945 into two independent nations  Korea Republic and  Korea DPR.

FIFA recognizes  Korea Republic as the successor of Korea and attributes its records to it.

•  Manchuria

Integrated into  China PR in 1945.

•  Curaçao

Reintegrated in 1954 into  Netherlands Antilles.

•  Sint Maarten

Since 1991 has a representative team which is a full member of CONCACAF, but not a FIFA member.

•  Sikkim

Integrated into  India in 1975.

•  Tanganyika
•  Zanzibar

Merged in 1964 to form the unified national team of  Tanzania.

FIFA recognizes  Tanzania as the successor of the  Tanganyika national team and attributes their records to it.

The island of Zanzibar, part of Tanzania (and once an independent nation), is also an associate member of CAF and has played matches with other nations.

•  USSR

 Estonia, Latvia and  Lithuania had already seceded from the Soviet Union and had formed national teams before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1992 into 12 independent nations, which played as  CIS in 1992, and subsequently launched their own national sides:

Armenia  Azerbaijan  Belarus  Georgia

Kazakhstan  Kyrgyzstan  Moldova  Russia

Tajikistan  Turkmenistan  Ukraine  Uzbekistan

FIFA recognizes  Russia as the successor of the CIS, which was itself the successor of the USSR national team, and attributes the records of these two previous entities to it.

 Russia was the official name till 1917 when became  USSR.

•  North Vietnam
•  South Vietnam

Merged in 1976 to form the unified national team of  Vietnam.

FIFA recognizes Vietnam as the successor of the North Vietnam national team and attributes its records to it.

•  North Yemen
•  Aden → Lahej →  South Yemen

Merged in 1990 to form the unified national team of  Yemen.

FIFA recognizes Yemen as the successor of the North Yemen national team and attributes its records to it.

•  Yugoslavia (Socialist Federal Republic)

Dissolved in 1992 into 5 independent nations:

•  Bosnia and Herzegovina
•  Croatia
•  FYR Macedonia
•  Slovenia
•  Yugoslavia (Federal Republic)

•  Yugoslavia (Federal Republic) - later renamed to  Serbia and Montenegro

Dissolved in 2006 into the independent nations of  Serbia and  Montenegro

FIFA recognizes  Serbia (and its predecessors  Yugoslavia and  Serbia and Montenegro) as the successor of the Yugoslavia SFR team and attributes its records to it.

In addition to the unification or dissolution of nations, other nations have been renamed:

• Palestine/Eretz Israel became  Israel in 1948
•  Dutch East Indies became  Indonesia in 1949
•  Gold Coast became  Ghana in 1957
•  Egypt became part of  United Arab Republic in 1958, then seceded to become  Egypt again in 1972
• Madagascar became  Malagasy Republic 1958, and reverted to  Madagascar in 1975
•  Belgian Congo became  Congo-Leopoldvillé in 1960 then became  Congo-Kinshasa in 1963, and then  Zaire in 1971, and then became  Congo DR in 1997
• French Equatorial Africa became  Congo-Brazzaville in 1960, then became  Congo in 1992
• French Togo became  Togo in 1960
•  Tanganyika became  Tanzania in 1962
•  Malaya became  Malaysia in 1963
•  Northern Rhodesia became  Zambia in 1964
•  Southern Rhodesia became  Rhodesia in 1964, and then  Zimbabwe in 1980
• British Gambia became Gambia in 1965
•  British Guiana became  Guyana in 1966
• Nyasaland became  Malawi in 1966
• French Somaliland became French Territory of the Afars and Issas in 1967 and subsequently  Djibouti in 1977
•  Ceylon became  Sri Lanka in 1972
•  Khmer Republic became  Kampuchea in 1975, then  Cambodia in 1979
•  Dahomey became  Benin in 1975
•  Dutch Guiana became  Suriname in 1975
• Portuguese Guinea became  Guinea-Bissau in 1975
•  Central African Republic became  Central African Empire in 1976, then became  Central African Republic in 1979
•  New Hebrides became  Vanuatu in 1980
•  Ivory Coast became  Côte d'Ivoire in 1983
•  Upper Volta became  Burkina Faso in 1984
•  Burma became  Myanmar in 1989
•  Western Samoa became  Samoa in 1996

• 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

• List of associations, at FIFA's site

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