Association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
is the national sport of
Aruba. Aruban football has been influenced and helped greatly by the national
Royal Dutch Football Association
The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch Netherlands nati ...
over the years. The
Aruba national team is normally placed near the bottom of the
FIFA World Rankings
The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, led by Brazil . The teams of the men's member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the ...
System.
History
The
Arubaanse Voetbal Bond
The Arubaanse Voetbal Bond is the governing body of football in Aruba. Its headquarters are at Frans Figaroa sports complex in the city of Noord. It's a member of FIFA and is responsible for governing amateur and professional football, including ...
, which governs football on the island, was formed in 1932 although it did not affiliate to
FIFA until 1988. The AVB is a member of the
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 language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...
governing body. The national league competition, the
Aruban Division di Honor, was established in 1960 with the most successful teams being
SV Dakota with 15 titles and
SV Estrella
Sport Vereniging Estrella is an Aruban football (soccer), football club, which currently plays in Aruba's first division. They are based in Papilon, Santa Cruz, Aruba, Santa Cruz. The team is one of the most successful in Aruban football, and they ...
with twelve. Until 1985 Aruban clubs also entered the
Netherlands Antilles Championship with two winning,
SV Racing Club Aruba in 1965 and SV Estrella in 1970. There are currently 62 registered clubs in Aruba with a total of 10,700 players and 126 officials involved in the game.
Aruba country info
on FIFA.com
League system
International
Although the Aruba national football team
The Aruba national football team ( Dutch: Arubaans voetbalelftal; Papiamento: Seleccion Arubano di futbol) is the national team of Aruba, it was founded in 1932 and is affiliated with the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), CONCACAF and FIFA (sinc ...
made its debut as early as 1924 Aruban players officially represented the Netherlands Antilles national football team
The Netherlands Antilles national football team ( Dutch, "Nederlands-Antilliaans voetbalelftal"; Papiamentu, "Selekshon Antiano di futbòl") was the national team of the former Netherlands Antilles from 1958 to 2010. It was controlled by the Ne ...
until a split was finalised in 1986. Although attempts have been Aruba have never qualified for the 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 ha ...
or the 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 ...
. The country is also a member of the Caribbean Football Union but they have yet to qualify for the Caribbean Cup
The Caribbean Cup was the championship tournament for national association football teams that are members of the Caribbean Football Union. The first competition, established by Shell and run by former England Cricket fast bowler Fred Rumsey, wa ...
.
References
See also
* Soccer in Saba
{{Aruba topics