History
The Chad football federation (FTFA) was founded in 1962, and affiliated to FIFA and to CAF in 1988.
Chad's national football team didn't play a big role in world football until the 1990s. They didn't 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'Amitié 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).
They eventually found some success, defeating Sao Tome e Principe 5–0 in 1976. Notable players from that era include Nabatingue Toko, who played with French clubs from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s.
Chad produced one of the most popular African players in Europe, Japhet N'Doram, who played as a striker for French club Nantes from 1991 to 1997. He played 137 matches for Nantes and scored 73 goals. He was also a member of the national football team, playing 36 matches and scoring 13 goals. He finished his career in AS Monaco in 1998 following a persistent injury sustained during a match against Nantes.
The Chad national football team never qualified for either the Africa Cup of Nations or World Cup. They participated in World Cup qualifiers 3 times, starting 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 match at home 3–1 when Francis Oumar Belonga scored a hat trick, but lost their away match 2–0, thus failing to go to next phase. 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 6 points (2 wins, 4 losses). In Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, they made 4 attempts without success.
In qualifications for 2014 World Cup Chad faced Tanzania. Tanzania qualified despite shockingly losing 1-0 at home at Dar es Salaam's National Stadium. The Taifa Stars were tipped for an emphatic victory over the visitors, having won the first-leg 2-1 in N'Djamena. Chad stunned the home side three minutes after the break when Mahamat Ahmat Labo struck to silence the home crowd. But Tanzania managed to qualify thanks to the away goals rule as they were tied 2-2 on aggregate.
Chad played against Malawi in qualifiers for 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. Chad won the first leg match 3:2, but Malawi beat Chad 2:0 in Blantyre to qualify for the final qualifying round with an aggregate score of 4:3.
Chad's most popular players today are Mahamat Labbo, Ezechiel N'Douassel, Marius Mbaiam, Leger Djime and Karl Max Barthelemy.
Read more about this topic: Chad National Football Team
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