The Belize national football team represents

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wa ...

in international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

and is controlled by the Football Federation of Belize, a member of the

Central American Football Union The Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol (Central American Football Union), more commonly known by the acronym UNCAF, represents the national football teams of Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Pa ...

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; types ...

. Although Belize has never qualified for a

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

tournament, it has once qualified for a

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

championship in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

, in which they were eliminated in the group stage. Belize has also competed in the sub-regional Central American Cup championship in which their best result was fourth place in

. The nickname for the players of the national team is the "

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

s".

History

Overview

Named

British Honduras British Honduras was a British Crown colony on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony, renamed Belize in June 1973,

whilst under British colonial rule, the country's first international game came on February 19, 1928, beating

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

1–0. Following independence, Belize's first game came on December 8, 1983, in a 2–0 loss against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

in Belize. Although Belize gained independence from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

in 1981 (and many of the UK's current colonies have international teams), Belize did not begin to regularly play international football until 1995. It made its debut at the 1995 UNCAF Nations Cup and was eliminated in the first round after losing to

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south ...

and

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

. Belize has never qualified for the World Cup but finished fourth in the 2013 Copa Centroamericana. Their fourth-place finish in the 2013 Copa Centroamericana gave Belize its first qualification to a major international competition, that being the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

June 2011 suspension by FIFA

On June 15, 2011, Belize kicked off its 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign against minnows

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with roughly of coastline. It is n ...

, winning 2–5 away in a match played in the

Ato Boldon Stadium The Ato Boldon Stadium is an athletics and football stadium located in Balmain, Couva, Trinidad and Tobago. It is currently the home ground of Central and Club Sando. History The stadium was constructed for the 2001 FIFA U-17 World Championship ...

Couva Couva is an urban town (48,858 in 2011 census) in west-central Trinidad, south of Port of Spain and Chaguanas and north of San Fernando and Point Fortin. It is the capital and main urban centre of Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo, and the Greate ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

. However, the return which was scheduled for June 19 was postponed by FIFA when they suspended the FFB due to governmental interference.

Stadium

FFB Field FFB Stadium is a football stadium in Belmopan, Belize. It has a capacity of 5,000 spectators. It is the home stadium for the Belize national football team, and is also used by the Premier League of Belize team Police United. Between April an ...

Belmopan Belmopan () is the capital city of Belize. Its population in 2010 was 16,451. In addition to being the smallest capital city in the continental Americas by population, Belmopan is the third-largest settlement in Belize, behind Belize City and S ...

is the home stadium for the Belize national football team. Prior to this stadium, Belize had no facilities that met FIFA specifications. Apart from this Belize has many fields to play on but with no facilities for the players.

Schedule and recent results

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

2022

2023

Coaching staff

Coaching history

Since the creation of the national team in 1995, several coaches have been in charge of managing Belize. From 1995 to 1996, Winston Michael was appointed as Belize's first ever manager. , the Belize national football team has had 11 managers.

Players

Current squad

* The following players were called up for the

2022–23 CONCACAF Nations League The 2022–23 CONCACAF Nations League is the second season of the CONCACAF Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 41 member associations of CONCACAF. The group phase of the tour ...

matches. * Match dates: 2, 5, 9 and 14 June 2022 * Opposition: , and (twice) *Caps and goals correct as of: 14 June 2022, after the match against

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up within the past 12 months. ^INJ Withdrew due to injury
^PRE Preliminary / Standby squad
^RET Retired from the national team
^SUS Serving suspension
^WD Player withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue.

Records

:''Players in bold are still active with Belize.''

Competition records

FIFA World Cup

CONCACAF Championship & Gold Cup

CONCACAF Nations League

Copa Centroamericana

The 1995 tournament in

saw Belize's international debut. They played the hosts in their first-ever international on November 29 in Group A.

won 3–0 with all goals coming in the second half. On December 1, Belize scored their first-ever international goal as they lost 2–1 to

and were eliminated from the tournament. Both other teams advanced to the semi-finals and were defeated there, Costa Rica's conqueror

beat

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...

in the final.

Head-to-head record

''Updated on 27 March 2022 after match against ''

References

External links

Football Federation of Belize official website

at FIFA.com
Official Instagram
{{National sports teams of Belize Central American national association football teams 1995 establishments in Belize Association football clubs established in 1995