List of men's national association football teams

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

[edit] Current FIFA affiliates

Map of the World with the six confederations.

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)

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 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)

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

West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) - represents 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 (EAFF) - represents nations generally agreed to constitute the "far east".
Central and South Asian Football Federation (CESAFA) - represents nations in central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) - represents nations from Southeast Asia, plus Australia
South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) - represents nations from South Asia

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: Official names used by FIFA and AFC; official names used by EAFF are "Hong Kong, China" and "Macau, China"
4: Iran is member of two sub-federations (WAFF and CESAFA)
5: Member of UAFA

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

[edit] CAF (Africa)

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

Council of East and Central African Football Associations (CECACAF) - represents nations generally regarded as forming the regions of East Africa and some nations of Central Africa.
Council of Southern African Football Associations (COSAFA) - represents nations generally regarded as forming Southern Africa, as well as island states off the coast of Southern Africa.
Union of West African Football Associations (WAFU) - one of two bodies that represent 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.
Union du Football de l'Ouest Afrique - one of two bodies that represent nations in West Africa.

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

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

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 three sovereign nations of North America
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: Full CONCACAF member but not FIFA member.
3: Geographically part of South America, but member of CONCACAF (CFU).

[edit] CONMEBOL (South America)

[edit] OFC (Oceania)

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

[edit] UEFA (Europe)

1: Official name given by UEFA to the team representing Ireland
2: Formerly member of AFC (AFC 1954-1974; Joined UEFA in 1994)
3: Formerly member of AFC (Joined UEFA in 2002).

NB: Gibraltar was a provisional member of UEFA between 8 December 2006 and 26 January 2007 until the GFA had its application for full membership rejected.

[edit] Teams not affiliated to FIFA

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.

[edit] Associate members

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

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

[edit] Currently unaffiliated sovereign nations

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

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

1. The Republic of Kosovo was unilaterally declared in February 2008. As of 2009-06-02, 60 countries have formally recognised Kosovan independence
2. The United Kingdom has only traditionally played as a single team at the Olympic football tournament. The four Countries of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) all have their own national teams who are individual members of FIFA and UEFA.

[edit] Teams of non-sovereign or unrecognized nations

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.

[edit] NF-Board

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
Gozo
Greenland
Iraqi Kurdistan
Monaco
Occitania
Padania
Provence
Rijeka
Romani people
Sápmi
Somaliland
South Moluccas
Southern Cameroons
Suryoye
Tibet
Northern Cyprus
Wallonia
West Papua

Provisional Members

Casamance
Chechnya
Easter Island
Kiribati
Maasai
Sardinia
Republic of Saugeais
South Lower Saxony
Sealand
Western Sahara
Yap
Zanzibar

1: Team name of British Indian Ocean Territory.

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

[edit] Former national football teams

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

[edit] FIFA recognised nations

The following teams played in FIFA recognised competition. The nations they represent have since undergone name and border changes.

Nations written in bold text inherit the records of all the teams written in italic text.

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

Germany split after the Second World War to form Saarland, East Germany and West Germany. Saarland rejoined West Germany in 1957. West Germany and East Germany merged in October 1990 to re-form the unified national team of Germany.

Ireland dissolved in 1922 into the states now known as Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. Both teams continued to play under the name 'Ireland' and both selected players from the whole of Ireland. The governing body of the original Ireland team, the IFA, continues to be the governing body of the Northern Irish team.

North Vietnam and South Vietnam merged in 1976 to form the unified national team of Vietnam.

North Yemen and South Yemen merged in 1990 to form the unified national team of Yemen

Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged in 1964 to form the unified national team of Tanzania. Zanzibar remains an associate member of CAF, but for the purposes of FIFA football is defunct.

Egypt and Syria united in 1958 to form the United Arab Republic. Syria left in 1961. The team name reverted to Egypt in 1971.

USSR dissolved in 1991. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania seceded from the Soviet Union before the dissolution. The 12 independent nations that remained played as CIS in 1992, but subsequently launched their own national sides: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan