Netherlands Antilles national football team
 |
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| Nickname(s) | De Antilopen |
|---|---|
| Association | Nederlands Antilliaanse Voetbal Unie |
| Confederation | CONCACAF (North America) |
| Home stadium | Stadion Ergilio Hato |
| FIFA code | ANT |
| FIFA ranking | |
| Highest | 118 (July 1995) |
| Lowest | 188 (December 2003) |
| Elo ranking | |
| Highest | 41 (March 1963) |
| Lowest | 174 (October 2009, October 2010) |
| First international | |
 Neth. Antilles 3–1 Panama  (Ciudad de Guatemala; 4 March 1948) Last International  Neth. Antilles 2–2 Suriname  (Willemstad, 31 October 2010) |
|
| Biggest win | |
 Neth. Antilles 15–0 Puerto Rico  (Venezuela; 15 January 1959) |
|
| Biggest defeat | |
|
Netherlands 8–0 Neth. Antilles (Amsterdam, Netherlands; 5 September 1962)  Mexico 8–0 Neth. Antilles (Port-au-Prince, Haiti; 8 December 1973) |
|
| CONCACAF Championship & Gold Cup |
|
| Appearances | 4 (first in 1963) |
| Best result | Third, 1963, 1969 |
The Netherlands Antilles national football team (Dutch, "Nederlands-Antilliaans voetbalelftal"; Papiamentu, "Selekshon Antiano di futbòl"), was the national team of the former Netherlands Antilles and was controlled by the Nederlands Antilliaanse Voetbal Unie. The NAVU consisted of Curaçao and Bonaire. Aruba split in 1986 and has its own team.
The Netherlands Antilles team never qualified for the FIFA World Cup. The country managed to come third in the CONCACAF championships of 1963 and 1969; for four days in March 1963 they could have been regarded as unofficial World Champions, beating Mexico 2–1 before losing to Costa Rica 0–1.
Under the name Curaçao, the team played its first international game in 1934 (against Suriname, which was then still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands as well) and continued to use the name Curaçao until the qualifications for the World Championships of 1958, although the name of the area had changed from "Territory of Curaçao" to "Netherlands Antilles" in 1948. In order to boost the competence of the team's players, in 1968 an agreement was nearly reached which would allow the Netherlands Antilles to play in the Combined Counties Football League in the lower divisions of the English football pyramid. The move would have seen the team adopting a home ground in the Netherlands as a base and travelling to play English teams as a regular team, albeit one without promotion or relegation prospects. However, the idea was shelved after initial promise due to cost concerns for most amateur teams.
The Netherlands Antilles was dissolved as a unified political entity on 10 October 2010, and the five constituent islands took on new constitutional statuses within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, forming 2 new countries (Curaçao and Sint Maarten) and 3 new special municipalities of the Netherlands (namely Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius).
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