Laos National Football Team - History

History

Laos established their national football association in 1951. The South East Asian nation is still waiting to make its entrance into a major international competition. Laos have never entered the World Cup, Asian Cup or Asian Games and as an international side, their appearances have been restricted to regional tournaments such as the Southeast Asian Games and the Tiger Cup. After years of internal strife, Laos is well on the road to economic and political recovery. With the country achieving political stability, football has made an impact on Laotians. Since making their appearance at the 1995 Southeast Asian Games, Laos has competed in the ASEAN Football Championship (Tiger Cup). Although new to the regional tournaments, Laos has displayed passion and talent. In 1995, they beat Brunei and the Philippines and two years later in the Jakarta SEA Games, they also beat Malaysia. Domestic competitions are also active with over 60 clubs competing at various levels. Domestic football is amateur although most of the top teams are drawn from government ministries and public services. In the qualifying preliminary rounds for the 2004 AFC Asian Cup, they beat Bangladesh 2–1. In the 2006 World Cup Asian zone qualifiers, they qualified for the second round as a lucky loser after Guam and Nepal both withdrew from competition. Going back the years, the team qualified for the second stage of Asian qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but proceeded to lose all its games (with Qatar, Iran and Jordan). They also advanced to the second round of Asian qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, after defeating Cambodia 8-6 on aggregate. In the second round, they lost to China PR 13-3 on aggregate. Laos has defeated their much more established counterparts such as Brunei, Cambodia, Philippines, Myanmar, Singapore and Malaysia.