The Vanuatu national football team is the national team of

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

and is controlled by the

Vanuatu Football Federation The Vanuatu Football Federation (VFF) is the main governing body of all association football, football in Vanuatu. It is an association of Vanuatu Football team, football clubs, and it organises national competitions and international matches for ...

History

It was known as the New Hebrides national football team until the

New Hebrides New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium (french: link=no, Condominium des Nouvelles-Hébrides, "Condominium of the New Hebrides") and named after the Hebrides Scottish archipelago, was the colonial name for the island group ...

became Republic of Vanuatu in 1980. It finished fourth in the

OFC Nations Cup The OFC Nations Cup is an international association football tournament held among the OFC member nations. It was held every two years from 1996 to 2004; before 1996 there were two other tournaments held at irregular intervals, under the name ...

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, and

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. In the 2004 Oceania Nations Cup, Vanuatu beat

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

4–2, preventing the regional powerhouse from making the final and, consequently, the running for the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. Vanuatu caused another shock in the 2007

South Pacific Games The Pacific Games (French: Jeux du Pacifique), is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from Oceania. The inaugural Games took place in 1963 in Suva, Fiji, and most recently in 2019 in Apia, Samoa. The Games were ...

by knocking out the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

for bronze medal and also enable to enter the second stage of qualification for the OFC Nations Cup and consequently a chance with a playoff 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 ...

in South Africa in 2010. The last time they had won against Solomon Islands was back in 1998 and had since been on the receiving side of many losses save for one draw against them. In July 2008, Vanuatu faced two national teams from the Solomon Islands during the inaugural edition of the

Wantok Cup The Wantok Cup was an international football competition between the national teams of three Melanesian countries: Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The Cup was to be a thrice-a-year competition, to be held in July (twice) and Septemb ...

. Vanuatu lost 1–2 to the Solomons' team A, but defeated their team B by two goals to one.

Kit sponsorship

Results and fixtures

In March 2022, Vanuatu played their first matches since they took part in the

2019 Pacific Games The 2019 Pacific Games was the sixteenth edition of the Pacific Games. The Games were held in Apia, Samoa, returning there for the first time since 2007. It was the third time overall that the Pacific Games were held in Samoa. The event was init ...

2022

Coaching staff

Coaching history

New Hebrides * P. Reichert (1973–1987) Vanuatu * Terry O'Donnell (1987–1993) * Saby Natonga (1996) * Alwyn Job (1998) * Juan Carlos Buzzetti (2000–2004) * Joe Szekeres (2004–2007) * Robert Calvo (2007–2008) * Willian Malas (2008) * Jorge Añón (2009) * Saby Natonga (2011–2012) * Percy Avock (2012–2015) *

Moise Poida Moise Poida (born 2 April 1979) is a Vanuatuan Association football, football Association football manager, manager and former player. He manages the Vanuatu national football team, Vanuatu men's national team and has been a former manager of clu ...

(2015–2018) *

Etienne Mermer The Vanuatu national football team is the national team of Vanuatu and is controlled by the Vanuatu Football Federation. History It was known as the New Hebrides national football team until the New Hebrides became Republic of Vanuatu in 1980. ...

(2017) *

Paul Munster Paul Munster (born 9 February 1982) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the technical director of the Brunei national football team. Playing career Munster began his career at the yout ...

(2019) *

(2019–2022) * George Amos (2022-)

Current squad

The following 25 players were called up for the

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

matches in March 2022. ''Caps and goals updated as of 27 March 2022, after the match against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

.''

Player records

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

Most capped players

Top goalscorers

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

OFC Nations Cup

Pacific Games

Melanesia Cup

Wantok Cup

Head-to-head record

''Up to matches played on 27 March 2022.''

References

Notes

External links

Vanuatu
at the FIFA website.
Vanuatu
at the OFC website.
VFFFoot.over-nlog.com

Vanuafoot – Vanuatu Football Federation Official site

Vanuatu Football Federation Official Blog site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanuatu National Football Team Oceanian national association football teams