List of men's national football (soccer) teams

From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids

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

[edit] Current FIFA affiliates

Map of the World with the six confederations.

There are currently 207 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.

[edit] AFC (Asia)

Afghanistan
Australia¹
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
Cambodia
China PR
Chinese Taipei²
Guam
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Japan
Jordan
North Korea
South Korea
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

[edit] CAF (Africa)

Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo DR
Congo
Côte d'Ivoire
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
Rwanda
São Tomé and Príncipe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
Sudan
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe

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

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 & Tobago
Turks and Caicos Islands
U.S. Virgin Islands
USA

1: Full CONCACAF member but not FIFA member

[edit] CONMEBOL (South America)

Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Venezuela

[edit] OFC (Oceania)

American Samoa
Cook Islands
Fiji
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tahiti
Tonga
Vanuatu

[edit] UEFA (Europe)

Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus¹
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Republic of Ireland
Israel²
Italy

Kazakhstan³
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
FYR Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Netherlands
Northern Ireland
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Scotland
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
Wales

1: National team of the Republic of Cyprus. The
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has its own
national team that is not a member of either UEFA
or FIFA.
2: Formerly member of AFC (Left in 1972; Joined UEFA in 1994)
3: Formerly member of AFC (Joined UEFA in 2002)

[edit] Former national football teams

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

[edit] Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

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

FIFA recognizes

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

[edit] Germany

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 its records to it.

Saar

Reintegrated in 1957 into West Germany.

[edit] Vietnam

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.

[edit] Yemen

North Yemen
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.

[edit] USSR

USSR

Dissolved in 1991 into 15 independent nations:

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Estonia
Georgia

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lithuania
Moldova

Russia
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Uzbekistan

12 of them (minus Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) played as Commonwealth of Independent States in 1992.

FIFA recognizes

Russia as the successor of the USSR national team and attributes its records to it.

[edit] Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia (Socialist Federal Republic)

Dissolved in 1992 into 5 independent nations:

Bosnia & Herzegovina
Croatia
FYR Macedonia
Slovenia
Yugoslavia (Federal Republic)

Yugoslavia (Federal Republic) - later renamed to Serbia & Montenegro

Dissolved in 2006 into the independent nations of Serbia and Montenegro

FIFA recognizes

Serbia (and its predecesors

Yugoslavia and

Serbia & Montenegro) as the successor of the Yugoslavia SFR team and attributes its records to it.

[edit] Teams not affiliated to FIFA

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.

[edit] Associate members

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

Gibraltar¹
Montenegro²
Micronesia³
Niue³
Northern Mariana Islands³
Palau³
Tuvalu³
Réunion⁴
Zanzibar⁴

1: Applied for membership of UEFA
2: Provisional member of UEFA
3: Associate member of OFC
4: Associate member of CAF

[edit] NF-Board

These teams are full or provisional members of the NF-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 Islands
Greenland
Monaco
Occitania
Rijeka
Rom
Sápmi
Somaliland
South Moluccas
Southern Cameroon
Tibet
Northern Cyprus
West Papua

Provisional Members
Chechnya
Easter Island
Kiribati
Maasai
Western Sahara
Zanzibar
Associate Members
Republic of Saugeais
Sealand
South Lower Saxony

[edit] Currently unaffiliated sovereign nations

These sovereign nations are not members of either FIFA or the NF-Board, or of their local confederation:

Marshall Islands
Nauru
Vatican City

[edit] Teams of non-sovereign or unrecognized nations

This is a list of regional representative teams, unrecognised nations, dependencies and stateless peoples. Because of their status, it is unlikely that they would ever gain FIFA membership. However, the precedent of the five CONCACAF teams not affiliated to FIFA suggests that joining their local confederation may be less of a difficulty. There is also the possibility of joining an organisation such as the NF-Board. This is an incomplete list, and teams may be inactive.