Macau national football team

Macau national football team
The Macau national football team represents the Chinese special administrative region of Macau in international association football. The team is supervised by the Macau Football Association (Portuguese: Associação de Futebol de Macau). The Macau football team has a ranking that is one of the lowest among the FIFA members. Although usually known as simply Macau, the EAFF refers to the team as Macau, China.
The national team has never qualified for the AFC Asian Cup or EAFF East Asian Championship. The team qualified for the 2006 AFC Challenge Cup, where they got one draw and two losses.
The team had been representing Macau in international football events before 1999 when Macau was a dependent territory of Portugal. It continues to represent Macau even after Macau was handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal and became a special administrative region of China in 1999. This team is separate from the China national football team, as the Basic Law and the principle of "one country, two systems" allows Macau to maintain its own representative teams in international sports competitions. In Macau, the Macau football team is colloquially referred to as the "Macau team", while the Chinese national team is referred to as the "national team".
History
Macau participated in the inaugural 2006 AFC Challenge Cup held in Bangladesh being grouped with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan but lost all of their match against their opponent.
Macau then participated in the inaugural 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup held in Kuching, Malaysia being grouped with Laos, Mongolia and Sri Lanka. In the first match, Macau won Mongolia 2–1 with captain, Niki Torrão scoring a brace. The following match, Macau won Laos 4–1 before eventually drawing to Sri Lanka 1–1 which see Macau advanced to the semi-finals as group leaders. Macau faced Brunei which Leong Ka Hang rescued Macau from a one goal deficit to level the match at 1–1 seeing both sides off to extra time however the match goes on to penalties shoot out with Macau advancing to their first even international cup final. On 15 November 2016, Macau faced Nepal however in the 29' minute of the match, Nepalese Sujal Shrestha break the deadlock and Nepal ended up winning the 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup at the Sarawak Stadium. Leong Ka Hang is given the tournament 'Most Valuable Player' and Niki Torrão as the top joint goal scorer with 4 goals.
During the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification against Sri Lanka in which they won the first tie 1–0, they forfeited the second tie which awarded Sri Lanka was awarded as a 3–0 victory to Sri Lanka after Macau did not send their team for the match due to safety reasons following the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings. After a 4 years hiatus from the COVID-19 pandemic, On 26 March 2023, Macau play their first ever international matches at their own ground,Estádio Campo Desportivo against Singapore in a 1–0 defeat. On 19 June 2023, Macau travelled to Dalian, China to face Myanmar in a friendly match.
Rivalries
Hong Kong
The Hong Kong–Macau rivalry has been contested by Hong Kong Football Association and Macau Football Association since 1937.
FIFA suspension
In 2005 Macau was temporarily barred by FIFA from entering any international matches because of alleged undue influence of the government in forming the committee of its football association. The suspension was lifted after rectification by Macau.
Results and fixtures
The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.
2023
Coaching staff
Coaching history
João dos Santos (1996–1998)
Masataka Imai (2003–2004)
Masanaga Kageyama (2006–2008)
Leung Sui Wing (2008–2015)
Tam Iao San (2015–2017)
Chan Hiu Ming (2017–2018)
Iong Cho Ieng (2018–2019)
Lázaro Oliveira (2020–present)
Players
Current squad
The following 23 players are selected for the matches against Myanmar on 12 October 2023 and 17 October 2023.
Caps and goals correct as of 16 October 2023, after the match against Myanmar .
Recent call-ups
The following players have also been called up to the Macau squad recently.
Records
Players in bold are still active with Macau.
Most appearances
Top goalscorers
Competitive record
FIFA World Cup
AFC Asian Cup
East Asian Cup record
AFC Challenge Cup record
AFC Solidarity Cup record
Head-to-head record
As of 12 September 2023 after match against
Honours
AFC Solidarity Cup
Runner-up (1): 2016
References
External links
Macau team profile at NationalFootballTeams.com
Macau - Team Info, Related Teams, Matches, Roster, Head-2-Head, Club History, Historical Logos at globalsportsarchive.com
Asian national association football teams