This is a list of the men's national association football teams in the world. There are more nations with football teams than for any other sport, with teams representing all UN member states except the Marshall Islands, as well as several dependent territories, sub-national entities and states who are not members of the United Nations. This list divides teams into two main groups:
This list excludes other teams, which generally play outside of FIFA's recognition. Excluded teams include those who represent ethnic groups, sub-national entities and dependent territories other than those recognized by FIFA or its confederations, competitors at the Island Games, unrecognized states, separatist movements, and pseudo or micro-nations.
This section lists the current:
FIFA members are eligible to enter the FIFA World Cup and matches between them are recognized as official international matches. Based on their match results over the previous four-year period, the FIFA World Rankings, published monthly by FIFA, compare the relative strengths of the national teams.
Some national teams who are members of a confederation but not FIFA members compete in confederation-level and subregional tournaments. These teams, however, are not allowed to participate in the World Cup.
The six confederations are:
FIFA runs the World Cup as a tournament for national teams to find the world champion. Each confederation also runs its own championship to find the best team from among its members:
While not a confederation in itself, the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) coordinates football activities between Arabic-speaking countries. All 22 national governing bodies that form UAFA are also members of both FIFA and either the AFC or CAF. National teams from UAFA member countries are noted in the list below.