Soccer Gamblers

Head coach: Manuel Bilches

Home stadium: Stadion Ergilio Hato

Although not a sovereign state, Curaçao appeared on the FIFA member list in March 2011, as successor of the Netherlands Antilles, which had been dissolved (and thus no longer existed) five months earlier.

As well as taking on the Netherlands Antilles’ FIFA membership, Curaçao was recognised as the direct successor of the former (similarly to how Serbia is regarded the direct successor of Yugoslavia), and took on its historical records and FIFA ranking.

The Netherlands Antilles national football team 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.

The Netherlands Antilles was dissolved as a unified political entity on October 10, 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.

At the time of the dissolution, the team was about to compete in the qualification tournament for the 2010 Caribbean Championship, and finally competed under an obsolete country name. Sint Maarten national football team is already a member of CONCACAF, but not of FIFA. The Curaçao national football team took the place of the Netherlands Antilles as a FIFA member.