The Chad national football team

The Chad national football team (French: Equipe du Tchad de football, Arabic: منتخب تشاد لكرة القدم‎), nicknamed Sao (Arabic: ساو‎), represents Chad in international football and is controlled by the Chadian Football Federation, the governing body for football in the country. The team has never qualified for the World Cup finals or Africa Cup of Nations. Home matches are played at the Idriss Mahamat Ouya Stadium. In April 2021, FIFA banned the Chad national football team from participating in global football over the Chadian government's interference with the Chadian Football Federation.

History

The Chadian Football Federation was founded in 1962, and affiliated to FIFA and to CAF in 1988.

Chad's national football team did not play a big role in world football until the 1990s. They did not enter any qualifiers for Continental or World Cups until the early 1990s when they played their first qualifying matches for the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations, hosted by Senegal. Until then, they played mostly friendly matches and minor cups, mostly with African teams.

The national team had a difficult start − the first match they ever played was in the L'Amitie Tournament, which took place in Senegal in 1963, and it was a 2–1 defeat to Liberia. Soon after, they suffered a 6–2 loss to Dahomey (now Benin).

The Chad national football team never qualified for either the Africa Cup of Nations or the World Cup. Their first participation in the World Cup qualifiers was in 2000 when they were eliminated in the first round by Liberia, losing 0–1 at home, and playing 0–0 away. They were coached by Marcel Mao. Their next attempt was in 2003, under Yann Djim, but they were eliminated by Angola. They won their first home game when Francis Oumar Belonga scored a hat trick, 3–1. They lost their away match 2–0, and went no further. The qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup brought more matches because they played in a group phase together with Mali, Sudan and Congo. They finished at the bottom of the group, with

This page also has a version in other languages :  Сборная Чада по футболу (russian)