team sport A team sport includes any sport where individuals are organized into opposing teams which compete to win or cooperate to entertain their audience. Team members act together towards a shared objective. This can be done in a number of ways s ...

, team of the century and team of the decade are hypothetical best teams over a given time period. For the century team, it can be either 100 years, or for a century (always the 20th). Similarly the team of the decade can be for 10 years or a decade (for example the 1980s). Teams of the decade and century are selected for both leagues and clubs and sometimes selected for other reasons, such as to honour the contribution of a particular ethnic group. Teams of the 20th century in particular have been controversial due to their loose criteria and the

systemic bias Systemic bias, also called institutional bias, and related to structural bias, is the inherent tendency of a process to support particular outcomes. The term generally refers to human systems such as institutions. Institutional bias and structur ...

toward current players, given that the performance of players before the advent of

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wi ...

of matches cannot be reviewed and relies on hearsay and archival records. The Team of the Century concept used extensively in the sport of

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

, where, since the mid-1990s, leagues (such as the

VFL/AFL The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

), as well as

football club A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all ...

s, have named their best team (see Football (Australian rules) positions). Teams of the decades followed. One of the most famous examples of the team of the century concept was in 1996, when the

AFL Team of the Century The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling ...

was named on 2 September 1996, during the League's centenary season. An example from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

was when in 1984 the GAA selected their Football Team of the Century and

Hurling Team of the Century The Hurling Team of the Century was chosen as part of the Gaelic Athletic Association's centenary year celebrations in 1984 to comprise, as a fifteen-member side divided as one goalkeeper, three half-backs, two midfielders, three half-forwardss a ...

to celebrate the first 100 years of the GAA. The term was used again in 2011 when the Team of Century from the

Sigerson Cup The Sigerson Cup is the trophy for the premier Gaelic football championship among Higher Education institutions (Universities, Colleges and Institutes of Technology) in Ireland. It traditionally begins in mid January and ends in late February. ...

was chosen.

Official examples

Australian rules football

* AFL/VFL Team of the Century * Italian Team of the Century *

Indigenous Team of the Century The Indigenous Team of the Century (Australian rules football) was selected to recognise the role of Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the eth ...

Greek Team of the Century The Greek Team of the Century was a representative team chosen in 2004 in the sport of Australian rules football. Anthony Koutoufides and Peter Daicos were named vice-captains, Lou Richards was captain. The criterion for selection was that any G ...

* Queensland Team of the 20th Century

Other sports

Baseball

Major League Baseball All-Century Team In 1999, the Major League Baseball All-Century Team was chosen by popular vote of fans. To select the team, a panel of experts first compiled a list of the 100 greatest Major League Baseball (MLB) players from the 20th century. Over two million fa ...

(1999)

Gaelic football

* Gaelic football Team of the Century

Hurling

Rugby league

Australian Rugby League's Team of the Century In late 2007, the Australian Rugby League and National Rugby League commissioned a college of 130 experts to select the 100 best rugby league players in the game's 100-year history in Australia. The list was released in February 2008. From this li ...