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62-616: The Union of North African Football (UNAF) was founded in 2005 and includes the countries of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia and is continued to the Confederation of African Football that have 53 national football associations distributed into 6 regions. The UNAF is the sixth region of the continent by division accredited to the CAF and the Union has presided over in the first parliamentary period immediately following its founding by Mr. Samir Zaher

124-539: A national sport but it does not always mean their national team is the most popular. Also, the national team's own league may be popular but the international competition it competes in is not. For example, the Papua New Guinea national rugby league team (PNGL) is extremely popular because the sport is popular in the country, even though the highest competition it competes in - the Rugby League World Cup -

186-441: A national team or a national side ) is a team that represents a nation , rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport . The term is most commonly associated with team sports , for example association football (soccer) , curling , or basketball . However, it can be applied to groups of individuals representing a country where regular play is done by individuals, and individual scores are aggregated to

248-588: A "grandparent rule" for most players. The method by which a player obtains citizenship is irrelevant to national team eligibility, as long as it has been legally acquired. The only use of the grandparent rule is to determine a player's eligibility to represent the national team of a country's dependent territory, with two notable examples being those of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands , both US insular areas with their own national federations, and whose native-born residents are US citizens by birth. While

310-585: A 4-year deal to sponsor CAF competitions worth US$ 12.5 million, which was the biggest sponsorship deal in African sporting history at that time. CAF opened new sponsorship callouts when MTN's contract expired and French telecommunications giant Orange scooped it up in July 2009, signing an 8-year comprehensive long-term undisclosed deal to sponsor CAF competitions with a value of €100 million. On 21 July 2016, French energy and petroleum giant, Total S.A., replaced Orange as

372-521: A German-born player of Ethiopian descent who has represented the U.S. at under-23 level. He emigrated with his father to the U.S. at age 9 in 2006, and left the country at age 16 to join Arsenal's youth academy. In 2014, he automatically became a U.S. citizen outside the normal naturalisation process when his father became a U.S. citizen, and the United States Soccer Federation applied for

434-473: A change to the World Rugby eligibility rules will allow a one-time change of nationality for captured players that applies to both 15s and sevens, replacing the former provisions regarding change of nationality for Olympic sevens. Features of the new rules are: As for the concept of "capturing"—i.e., being tied to a specific country—the criteria have evolved over the years. Under current World Rugby regulations,

496-771: A common nationality to make an agreement among themselves, subject to FIFA approval, by which the residency criterion is deleted completely or amended to require a longer time limit. The most notable example of this situation is the United Kingdom , which has four national associations on its territory ( England , Northern Ireland , Scotland , Wales ). Players become permanently tied to a national association, with one exception to be outlined below, once they play in "an official competition of any category or any type of football". This includes any competition for national teams governed by FIFA, including qualifying matches for said competitions; international friendlies cannot tie players to

558-831: A competition for all African composers to create its anthem without lyrics to reflect the cultural patrimony and the music of Africa on 18 September 2007. Sources: A total of 54 member associations are part of the Confederation of African Football. Additionally, there are territories located in Africa which are not affiliated with CAF or any other confederation to any extent. Some African states with limited or no international recognition have official national teams, but none have been considered for CAF membership. Instead, they are affiliated with organizations such as CONIFA . National teams: Clubs: Inter Continental: Regional: Shortly after formation, CAF organized

620-406: A country under any circumstances. Players who have more than one nationality, regardless of the method of acquisition, have slightly different eligibility requirements from those who have a single nationality, whether or not it is shared by multiple associations. In addition to holding the relevant nationality, any of the following will qualify a player to appear for said country: This last rule

682-419: A country. In many countries, the national team is the highest level of play available and as a result, it is often most popular with fans and spectators from that country. In other countries, domestic competitions may be more competitive and offer a higher standard of play and reward. Depending on the sport, nation, and era in question, membership on the national team may be earned through individual play (as

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744-558: A former president of the Egyptian Football Association , the president is elected during a plenary session for a period of 4 years by the members of the Union and are the heads of the five unions and the president-elect proposes as his deputy from among the immediate superiors five national unions during the first meeting of an executive office following the election as General Assembly by the Executive Office to determine

806-513: A get a team result. Examples of this association are found in artistic gymnastics , archery , or figure Skating . National teams often compete at various levels and age groups, and have a number of different selection criteria based on national and their respective federations' rules. National teams are not always composed of the best available individual players. National teams, like other sporting teams, are often grouped by sex, age or other criteria. The most prestigious national teams are often

868-493: A national union from requiring that its representative players hold that country's nationality. For example, since December 2016, the French Rugby Federation has required French nationality as a precondition for national team selection, with players who had represented France before the policy change exempt from said requirement. Through 2021, if a player has ever played for one national team then they may not play for

930-413: A player is captured once they play for one of three specific teams: Starting in 2022, players will be captured if they are members of any of the country's aforementioned sides after turning 18. Note that unlike association football or basketball, players can be captured by appearing in international friendlies, such as the traditional mid-year and end-of-year Tests. However, capture only occurs when

992-408: A player is limited to representing two countries in their lifetime, and a three-year stand-down period is enforced—unless the player who has previously represented an ICC associate member is seeking to play for an ICC full member (i.e., a Test-playing nation), in which case there is no stand-down period. The player may represent their original country after representing the second country, but only after

1054-456: A player primarily qualifies for a national team by "holding a permanent nationality that is not dependent on residence in a certain country"—i.e., being a passport-carrying citizen of said country. If a player's single nationality enables him or her to play for more than one FIFA member, any of the following will be sufficient to establish eligibility for a specific association under that nationality: However, FIFA allows associations that share

1116-592: A second nationality at birth (such as individuals born in Northern Ireland , who are generally born with UK citizenship but also have the right to citizenship in the Republic of Ireland from birth), but did not exercise that right until age 16 or later. The eligibility rules of the International Cricket Council provide three qualifying criteria for prospective national team players, all linked to

1178-411: A waiver of the adult residency requirement, citing Zelalem's extended childhood residence in the U.S. He was approved to play for the U.S. several months later. Separate from the above rules, a player who holds multiple nationalities may petition FIFA for a one-time change of nationality if they have never appeared in an official senior international match for any country, and holds the nationality of

1240-548: A women's team may be more popular than a men's team if there is a greater participation in the sport. The popularity of the international competition that a team participates in has the biggest influence on the popularity of national sports team. There is a certain amount of prestige which is associated with competing on the "world stage". Competitions with the most teams involved offer the most international competition and are often most popular. The most popular multi-sport international competitions that include team sports include

1302-465: A written request to FIBA. However, if the player has yet to make a choice and one of those countries formally calls the player to international duty after they reach age 18, that player is required to make a choice at that time. As in association football, playing in an international friendly cannot tie a player to any country; only participation in an official FIBA competition is sufficient for this purpose. Unlike association football, FIBA does not have

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1364-406: Is intended to prevent associations from naturalising players who lack birth or familial ties in that country, and immediately fielding them in international matches. FIFA will issue waivers to this last requirement if an association can show to FIFA's satisfaction that the player had significant ties to that country prior to naturalisation. A recent example of such a waiver is that of Gedion Zelalem ,

1426-537: Is not. In this case, there are numerous reasons for the lack of popularity of the World cup in Papua New Guinea . One is that the country is relatively small, population 8 million, and the expense of travel around the world to follow their team is too great for most. Another reason is that, because 75% of the professionals in the PNGL are not national citizens and therefore only eligible to play for their home country's national team,

1488-495: Is the case for an Olympic athletics team or a Davis Cup team), players may be selected by a managers and coaches appointed by a national sport association , or a team may have to win a national championship in order to receive the right to represent their nation (as in the World Curling Championships ). Various rules are used to determine who is eligible to play for which national team. Under FIFA regulations,

1550-786: The Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated AFCON) in 1957 and it has since become its flagship competition. Faced with undisclosed decline in popularity of local competitions and the mass exodus of homegrown footballers to Europe, Asia and the Americas in the 1990s and early 2000s, CAF launched the African Nations Championship (alternatively, though not widely used, the Championship of African Nations (CHAN)) on 11 September 2007 and began organization two years later, to address this issue. CAF also organizes qualification tournaments/competitions for

1612-460: The Africa Cup of Nations and Women's Africa Cup of Nations , which they control the prize money and broadcast rights to. CAF will be allocated 9 spots at the FIFA World Cup starting from 2026 and could have an opportunity of 10 spots with the addition of an intercontinental play-off tournament involving 6 teams to decide the last 2 FIFA World Cup places (46+2). The main headquarters of CAF

1674-523: The African Cup Winners' Cup , commenced in 1975 for national cup winners of member associations and a third currently-former competition, the CAF Cup , launched in 1992 for African teams who finished below the top 2 positions of the league classifications of member associations and haven't met any criteria for qualification to any CAF competition. CAF decided to merge these two competitions together to form

1736-625: The African Cup of Champions Clubs (simply known sometimes as the African Cup ) and rebranded in 1997 as the CAF Champions League, this "prestigious" football club competition currently features the champions of top-division leagues of CAF member associations and the runners-up teams of the league classifications of member associations the top 12 ranked national associations as documented by the CAF 5-year ranking system. A currently-former competition,

1798-467: The Confederation of African Football and the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA). UNAF runs several competitions which cover men's, women's, youth, clubs and futsal . For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown. Rankings are calculated by FIFA . Last updated 20 June 2024 Rankings are calculated by FIFA based on matches played over

1860-460: The Egyptian Football Association withdrew its membership citing the incidents that accompanied the playoff between Egypt and Algeria , but returned in 2011. Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football ( CAF ) is the administrative and controlling body for association football , beach soccer , and futsal in Africa . It was established on 8 February 1957 at

1922-610: The FIFA U-20 World Cup and the FIFA U-17 World Cup for its member associations; both of which initially began on a home-and-away two-legged basis but has since 1995 been organized in appointed host countries as respectively the Under-20 and U-17 Africa Cup of Nations . For women's football operates competitions which currently serve as qualification tournaments for the related FIFA-organized tournaments which launched at

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1984-477: The First Nations Lacrosse Association are the only teams representing any group of Indigenous people of the Americas that plays in an international level. The popularity and notability of a national team depend on a number of factors: Popularity of a national team also depends on the popularity of the sport in that country. In some countries a particular sport is very popular and may be

2046-683: The Grand Hotel in Khartoum , Sudan by the national football associations of: Algeria , Egypt , Ethiopia , Nigeria , and South Africa . following formal discussions between the aforementioned associations at the FIFA Congress held on 7 June 1956 at Avenida Hotel in Lisbon , Portugal . Representing the African confederation of FIFA , CAF organizes runs and regulates national team and club continental competitions annually or biennially such as

2108-625: The Olympic Games they combine to form a Great Britain team. The Ireland national rugby union team represents the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in rugby union, and all-island teams are fielded in a number of other sports. Some Olympic teams represent dependent territories , including Bermuda , the British Virgin Islands and the Cook Islands . The Iroquois Nationals (men) and Haudenosaunee Nationals (women) lacrosse teams of

2170-541: The Olympic Games , Asian Games are relatively open for participation. Other competitions that are specific to sports, such as the FIFA World Cup ( Association football ), Rugby World Cup (rugby union) and Cricket World Cup ( cricket ) allow many countries to qualify. For instance, the popularity of the Socceroos is heightened during the FIFA World Cup simply due to participation in a global event. However, how even

2232-494: The Papua New Guinea National Team is not as successful internationally. Therefore, because the national league is inner territorial and more accessible to residents of Papua New Guinea and because spectators feel more invested and closer to their national town clubs, explains why a country's national sport's National Team may not be the most popular team in said area. The exact opposite may be true as well where

2294-825: The Under-20 and Under-17 levels , launched in 2002 and 2008 respectively, both of which crowns no champions but instead qualifies 2 teams to compete at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup respectively. For African clubs, CAF runs the CAF Men's and Women's Champions League , the CAF Confederation Cup , the CAF Super Cup and the African Schools Football Championship for both males and females. First held in 1964 as

2356-477: The Wayback Machine For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown. Teams are sorted by number of appearances. The voting to select the best of the century refers to three categories: male player, goalkeeper and female player and is obtained from five different steps. The resulting best players and goalkeepers were honored during

2418-520: The "World Football Gala 1999". In 2007, CAF published the list of top 30 African players who played in the period from 1957 to 2007, as part of the celebration of the golden jubilee or 50th anniversary of the foundation of CAF, ordered according to an online poll. Awards: Qualifications: This table is for players with 30 or more goals for a CAF national team. Players in bold are still active at international level. National team A national sports team (commonly known as

2480-466: The 2016 match involved two national "A" sides, it did not qualify to capture Haley (or any other player on either team who had not previously been captured) because at the time, South Africa's designated "next senior" side was its U-20 national team . As for the 2017 match, WR classifies the Barbarians as a club team, putting them outside the scope of this regulation. Various controversies have involved

2542-609: The CAF Champions League. The winners of the CAF Champions League play the winners of the African Cup Winners' Cup until 2004 and the CAF Confederation Cup thereafter in the CAF Super Cup which was launched in 1993. The Afro-Asian Club Championship was an annual football match jointly organized between CAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) between the winners of the CAF Champions League and

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2604-721: The UNAF unanimously. On the other hand, the General Assembly approved in particular on the administrative and financial reports of the UNAF as well as the adoption of the estimated budget of the Union project for the year 2015 and the report of the Finance Committee meeting held on 23 October 2014. The program was approved on the North African Union's activities for the year 2015. UNAF has 5 member associations. All associations were founding members of UNAF. All of them are members of

2666-625: The basis of not being remunerated. This can affect the relative performance of a team. In other cases, players may be contracted to a club, at home or abroad. As a result, their primary loyalty may be to their club rather than their country, especially if the competition that the national team is playing in does not offer the same prestige. Communist countries were accused of having an advantage by having state-sponsored "full-time amateurs" because of their economic system. Their Olympic athletes were given everything they needed to live prosperously and train, but were not technically paid to do it because it

2728-400: The competition is also matters. Even if there are a large number of participants, if a handful of teams dominate or if many of the teams are from countries where the sport lack sufficient depth to field a quality side, then the overall competition will not be taken seriously. The popularity of a national team can also be due to a team being successful even if the sport itself is not popular in

2790-619: The country governed by a specific national federation: Players can only be tied to a given national team by being named to that country's squad, either in the first XI or as a substitute (playing or non-playing), in an official ICC match—defined as a Test , ODI , or Twenty20 match that involves a national federation's senior side. Playing at under-19 level, or for a senior developmental team, does not bind an individual to that country. Unlike many sports, which make changes of nationality difficult or impossible, cricket allows players to represent more than one country during their careers. However,

2852-511: The current second-tier CAF Confederation Cup in 2004, and it currently incorporates the participation of national cup winners from the Cup Winners' Cup, whiles maintaining the format of the participation of teams who finished 3rd in the top-division league classifications of the 12 highest-ranked member associations as documented by the CAF 5-Year Ranking system from the CAF Cup. It is also ranked below

2914-691: The exact same year they began formation. The flagship African women's football competition/tournament is the Women's Africa Cup of Nations , which launched in 1991 as the African Women's Championship and was known in the mass media between 2015 and 2021 as the Africa/African Women/Women's Cup of Nations , which currently qualifies 4 teams to the FIFA Women's World Cup . CAF also organizes qualification matches for "promising future female footballers" at both

2976-460: The full three-year stand-down period. Unlike the situation in association football and basketball, in which holding nationality in a country is a requirement for representing that country, or cricket, in which nationality is one of several means by which a player can qualify for a national team, eligibility regulations in rugby union do not mention nationality at all. Players can qualify for a given country in one of four ways: This does not prevent

3038-606: The heads and members of the committees. The recent president elected is Mr. Wadii Jari, a president of the Tunisian Football Federation . He was unanimously elected chairman of the UNAF for a term of four years and during the electoral general assembly, which was held on Saturday 25 October 2014 in Tunis . He was also selected Mr. Gamal Allam, a head of the Egyptian Football Association as a vice-president of

3100-448: The last four years. Last updated 14 June 2024 Last updated 8 May 2023 Last updated 8 May 2023 Last updated 23 June 2023 The 2023 CAF African Schools Football Championship Qualifiers took place in Cairo , Egypt. Libya won the boys category and Morocco won the girls category, thus both qualifying African Schools Football Championship Finals. On 20 November 2009,

3162-412: The main sponsor with an 8-year sponsorship package from CAF for a value of €950 million to support its competitions. Total rebranded as TotalEnergies on 28 May 2021. The current main CAF sponsors are: The following clubs are the top 10 clubs in CAF competitions. The following table lists all the countries whose clubs have won at least one CAF competition. Egyptian clubs are

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3224-401: The method by which a player becomes a citizen does not affect their eligibility for a national team, it can affect the player's ability to participate in a given FIBA competition. FIBA mandates that in official competitions, no national team can have more than one player on its roster who acquired citizenship by any means after reaching age 16. This also applies to individuals who had the right to

3286-501: The most successful, with a total of 44 titles. Egyptian clubs hold a record number of wins in the African Cup of Champions Clubs/CAF Champions League (18), the now-defunct African Cup Winners' Cup (8), the CAF Super Cup (12) and the now-defunct Afro-Asian Club Championship (3), followed by Tunisian clubs with 24 titles and they have the most victories in the now-defunct CAF Cup (4) and Moroccan clubs have secured also 24 titles with

3348-577: The most victories in the CAF Confederation Cup (7). Rankings are calculated by the CAF based on points gathered by African teams throughout their participation in international club tournaments organized by either CAF themselves or FIFA since the establishment of the first African Cup of Champions Clubs in 1964. Per 22 June 2023: (*)= Provisional ranking (played at least 10 matches) (**)= Inactive for more than 24 months Rankings are calculated by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). Top ten, last updated 12 March 2018 Archived 23 October 2019 at

3410-645: The national team is more popular than its respective league. For example, the Korean National Handball League is not extremely popular because handball is not a popular sport in Korea. But the South Korean National Team is popular because it internationally wins medals in the Olympics or World Cup Events . A particular sport in a country may be more popular among certain groups. For example,

3472-504: The opponent is also one of the above-mentioned sides . This can sometimes cause apparently counterintuitive results. For example, Mike Haley has represented England twice—first for England Saxons against South Africa A in 2016, and then for a non-capped England XV against the Barbarians in 2017. However, neither match tied him to England, and he has remained eligible for selection to Ireland , for which he qualified by ancestry. Even though

3534-633: The participation of players whose eligibility has been challenged. One famous example was Grannygate . More recently, questions have been raised about the eligibility of two players who participated in the European qualifying process for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, one for Belgium and the other for Romania. In some national teams, representatives play for the love of their sport and country. However, in others, individual players are paid to represent their country. In some cases, players are either deliberately excluded or choose not to represent their national team on

3596-454: The second country prior to appearing for said country. The aforementioned Zelalem case falls within the scope of these rules, since he had played for Germany at youth level. FIBA 's national team eligibility rules are broadly similar to those of FIFA. Holding nationality is mandatory (but not sufficient) for eligibility to represent a country. Players with multiple nationalities may choose to play for one of those countries at any age by making

3658-454: The senior men's and women's teams. However, they may not be the most popular or successful. In most cases, a national sports team represents a single sovereign state , though there are some exceptions to the rule. In several sports, the British Isles divides along internal boundaries: England , Northern Ireland , Scotland and Wales are represented by separate national teams, while in

3720-465: The team of a different nation at same or at the next-higher level of seniority. However, the addition of rugby sevens to the Olympics created a loophole due to the IOC's different eligibility criteria. Players who had been "captured" by one country but held the passport of another country could make a one-time change of allegiance to the second country under the following conditions: Effective 1 January 2022,

3782-523: The winners of the AFC Champions League between 1987 and 1999. The CAF Women's Champions League was announced and approved on 30 June 2020, launched on 12 September that year and began contesting the following year, i.e. 2021. It features women's national league and cup winners nvolving the champions of CAF's sub-confederation qualification tournaments for women's club teams. In October 2004, South African telecommunications giant, MTN , contracted

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3844-602: Was first situated within the offices of the Sudanese Football Association in Khartoum until it experienced a fire outbreak and then moved to a town near Cairo , Egypt until 2002. Youssef Mohamad was the first general secretary and Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem , the first president . President Patrice Motsepe from South Africa was elected on 12 March 2021 in an unopposed elections held in Rabat , Morocco . CAF launched

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