Home of football statistics and historyFIFA recognizes 211 national associations and their associated men’s football teams as well as 129 women’s national teams. That’s one for every country in the world and about 14 to spare depending on which measure you use. The discrepancy comes about because some countries have more than one FIFA team – the United Kingdom being the most obvious example.
Events like the World Cup, Copa America and the European Championship give us a chance to see the world’s heavyweight teams in action. Here, we take a look at the opposite end of the scale and check out three of the smallest footballing nations.
Monaco
Monaco is famous for its millionaires and its iconic casino. Most people visiting the principality are more interested in poker odds than football ones, and while Monaco is a popular haunt for some of the world’s top footballers, they tend to visit during their downtime for a game of high stakes poker or baccarat.
Having said that, Monaco has its own football team, although it is one that is somewhat in limbo. Monaco is not a member of FIFA or UEFA, so is unable to enter qualifying for the World Cup or Euros. It was a founder member of the NF Board and made it to the inaugural VIVA World Cup Final. Sápmi won what was surely one of the most bizarre cup final games in history by a score of 21-1, and Monaco subsequently withdrew from the NF Board.
San Marino
A day’s drive across Italy will get you from Monaco to San Marino. The two principalities have plenty in common – both are among the five smallest countries in the world, and both share an improbably high proportion of millionaires per capita. San Marino has the distinction of being the smallest country in FIFA and UEFA.
Stand out performances have been few and far between over San Marino’s 30 years in UEFA, although that’s not really surprising when you have a popularity of 33,000 to choose from, a smaller population than any other FIFA member nation. The truth is, San Marino stands last in the FIFA rankings, a position it has held with consistency over the years.
In 1993, they had their first taste of World Cup qualifying and were unlucky to be drawn in the same group as England. When the teams met, there was a moment of magic when Davide Gualtieri scored in 8.3 seconds, which at the time was a World Cup qualifying record, to give San Marino the lead, albeit a brief one.
American Samoa
A nation more into its rugby if truth be told, American Samoa has the distinction of being at the receiving end of the heaviest defeat in football history, losing 31-0 to Australia in a 2001 World Cup qualifier. The result was instrumental in a rule change to bring in a preliminary qualifying round to avoid such unbalanced matches. American Samoa continues to occupy the lower regions of the FIFA rankings, although recent back to back wins against Tonga and Samoa briefly elevated the team to 164th
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