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List of men's national football (soccer) teams

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

Contents

[edit] Current FIFA affiliates

Image:World Map FIFA2.png

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:

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)

1: Formerly member of OFC (Joined AFC in 2006)
2: Official name of the national team of the Republic of China

[edit] CAF (Africa)

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

1: Full CONCACAF member but not FIFA member

[edit] CONMEBOL (South America)

[edit] OFC (Oceania)

[edit] UEFA (Europe)

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

Dissolved in 1993 into the independent nations of Image:Flag of the Czech Republic (bordered).svg Czech Republic and Image:Flag of Slovakia (bordered).svg Slovakia.
FIFA recognizes Image:Flag of the Czech Republic (bordered).svg Czech Republic as the successor of the Czechoslovakia national team and attributes its records to it.

[edit] Germany

Merged in October 1990 to form the unified national team of Image:Flag of Germany.svg Germany.
FIFA recognizes Image:Flag of Germany.svg Germany as the successor of the West Germany national team and attributes its records to it.
Reintegrated in 1957 into Image:Flag of Germany.svg West Germany.

[edit] Vietnam

Merged in 1976 to form the unified national team of Image:Flag of Vietnam.svg Vietnam.
FIFA recognizes Image:Flag of Vietnam.svg Vietnam as the successor of the North Vietnam national team and attributes its records to it.

[edit] Yemen

Merged in 1990 to form the unified national team of Image:Flag of Yemen.svg Yemen.
FIFA recognizes Image:Flag of Yemen.svg Yemen as the successor of the North Yemen national team and attributes its records to it.

[edit] USSR

Dissolved in 1991 into 15 independent nations:
12 of them (minus Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) played as Image:Flag of the CIS.svg Commonwealth of Independent States in 1992.
FIFA recognizes Image:Flag of Russia (bordered).svg Russia as the successor of the USSR national team and attributes its records to it.

[edit] Yugoslavia

Dissolved in 1992 into 5 independent nations:
Dissolved in 2006 into the independent nations of Image:Flag of Serbia (state) (bordered).svg Serbia and Image:Flag of Montenegro.svg Montenegro
FIFA recognizes Image:Flag of Serbia (state) (bordered).svg Serbia (and its predecesors Image:Flag of FR Yugoslavia.svg Yugoslavia and Image:Flag of Serbia and Montenegro.svg 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:

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.

[edit] Currently unaffiliated sovereign nations

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

[edit] Teams of non-sovereign or unrecognized nations

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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.