Gibraltar national football team
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| Association | Gibraltar Football Association | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Confederation | UEFA (Europe) | ||
| Head coach | Allen Bula | ||
| Asst coach | Aaron Edwards | ||
| Captain | Roy Chipolina | ||
| Most caps | Lee Casciaro | ||
| Top scorer | Jonny Sharples | ||
| Home stadium | Victoria Stadium, Gibraltar | ||
| FIFA code | GIB (not official) | ||
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| First international | |||
 Gibraltar 1–2 Jersey  (Isle of Wight; 4 July 1993) |
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| Biggest win | |||
Gibraltar 19–0 Sark  (Guernsey; 29 June 2003) |
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| Biggest defeat | |||
 Greenland 5–0 Gibraltar (Isle of Wight; 6 July 1993) |
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The Gibraltar national football team represents Gibraltar in football competitions and is controlled by the Gibraltar Football Association. It is not yet a full member of FIFA and is therefore not eligible to enter the World Cup. However, Gibraltar applied for full UEFA membership and was accepted by the UEFA Board in May 2013 and can therefore compete in the UEFA European Championship beginning with the 2016 edition of the tournament. With a population of 30,000 Gibraltar is the smallest UEFA member in terms of population[1][2]
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History [edit]
Foundation [edit]
The history of the Gibraltarian national football side can be traced back to April 1923, when it travelled to Spain to play club side Sevilla in a friendly; two games were played and Gibraltar lost both.[3] The side also managed a draw with Real Madrid in 1949.
Entering the Island Games [edit]
The first competition the team entered was the 1993 Island Games. Gibraltar lost all of its matches, scoring only one goal and finishing in last place.
They had much more success in the 1995 Island Games, which they hosted. Despite losing their opening game against Greenland, Gibraltar bounced back to record their first competitive win, against the Isle of Man. Another victory over Anglesey saw Gibraltar finish second in the group, ahead of Anglesey only on goal difference, and qualify for the semi finals. There, they beat Jersey 1–0, before losing the final to the Isle of Wight by the same scoreline.
In the 1997 Island Games, two wins and two losses in the group stage, followed by a defeat to Shetland in a playoff, saw Gibraltar finish 6th out of 9 teams. Another poor performance in 1999 saw them finish 11th.
Island Games results improved slightly in 2001, as they came 5th, and in 2003 Gibraltar recorded their biggest win ever, defeating Sark 19–0. Other good results against Greenland and Orkney saw them finish 6th out of 12. Despite these minor successes, Gibraltar did not enter the 2005 tournament.
2006 FIFI Wild Cup [edit]
In early summer 2006 Gibraltar participated in the 2006 FIFI Wild Cup where it was ranked 3rd. The tournament was an alternative World Cup for non FIFA members, which was only held once. In Gibraltar's opening match, they drew 1–1 with the hosts, the 'Republic of St. Pauli', before beating Tibet 5–0 in their second group game to qualify for the semi-finals. There they lost 2–0 to eventual champions Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. In the third place playoff, Gibraltar had a rematch against St. Pauli. This time Gibraltar were able to defeat the hosts, to finish in third place out of the six teams.
First Island Games victory, 2008 Four Nations [edit]
In 2007, Gibraltar won the Island Games for the 1st time, beating Rhodes by 4–0.
In 2008 Gibraltar accepted an invitation to participate in The Four Nations Tournament, the most prominent senior football tournament that Gibraltar has ever participated in. The 2008 Four Nations Tournament, won by England C, was played in North Wales, and was contested between Wales Semi-Pro, England C, Scotland B and guest nation Gibraltar after Northern Ireland decided not to take part. Though Gibraltar eventually finished bottom of the group, they pushed tournament winners England C close.
Into UEFA competition [edit]
After the vote at the UEFA congress held in London on 24 May 2013, the GFA was accepted as a full UEFA member, with no votes against and no abstentions registered. This meant Gibraltar became the smallest UEFA member by population, behind San Marino, then Liechtenstein and the Faroe Islands. As a result of the vote, the Gibraltar national team became eligible to enter the qualification tournaments for UEFA's premier national team competition, the European Championship (the Euros). The first such opportunity would be the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, which runs from September 2014 to November 2015. Following the example of Armenia and Azerbaijan, it was confirmed that Gibraltar and Spain would be kept apart in qualifying groups.[2]
Records [edit]
UEFA European Football Championship [edit]
| Year | Round | Position | MP | W | D | L | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 2016 |
TBD | |||||||
| Total | 0/1 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Island Games record [edit]
| Year | Round | Position | GP | W | D | L | GS | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 1993 |
7th Place Match | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| 1995 |
Runners-Up | 2 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| 1997 |
5th Place Match | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 8 |
 1999 |
11th Place Match | 11 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 11 |
 2001 |
5th Place Match | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 |
 2003 |
5th Place Match | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 29 | 5 |
 2007 |
Champions | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 2 |
 2009 |
9th Place Match | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 3 |
| 2011 |
5th Place Match | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 7 |
| Total | 8/11 | 1 Title | 38 | 20 | 2 | 16 | 99 | 50 |
- *Gold background colour indicates that the tournament was won. Red border colour indicates tournament was held on home soil.
Wild Cup record [edit]
| Year | Round | Position | GP | W | D | L | GS | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 2006 |
3rd Place Playoff | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 |
| Total | 1/1 | 0 Titles | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 |
Four Nations Tournament record [edit]
| Year | Round | Position | GP | W | D | L | GS | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 2008 |
Group | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 11 |
| Total | 1/1 | 0 Titles | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 11 |
Honours [edit]
Selected Internationals opponents [edit]
- Recent Games:
Gibraltar 3-0 Faroe Islands 
- Gibraltar, 11 March 2011- Gibraltar 3–1 England C
– Gibraltar, 15 November 2011 [4] - Gibraltar 2-0 Isle of Man
- Gibraltar, 28 June 2012 - Gibraltar 2-1 Jersey
- Gibraltar, 30 June 2012
- Fixtures against club sides
- Gibraltar 1–2 Rochdale – Gibraltar – 10 July 2011 [5]
- Gibraltar 2–1 Bury – Gibraltar – 8 January 2012 [6]
- Gibraltar 4-0 Portsmouth – Gibraltar – 20 July 2012
- Gibraltar 3-1 Notts County – Gibraltar – 31 July 2012
| Opponents | Matches | Win | Draw | Loss | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Åland Islands |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Ynys Môn |
4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
 England C |
2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
 Faroe Islands |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
 Frøya |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 1 |
| Greenland |
4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 7 |
| Guernsey |
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Isle of Man |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Rhodes |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Isle of Wight |
4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 3 |
| Jersey |
7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 15 |
 Madeira |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
 Minorca |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
 Monaco |
2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
 Orkney |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
 Northern Cyprus |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Sark |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0 |
 Scotland Semi-Pro |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
 Shetland |
4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
 Tibet |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Wales Semi-Pro |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
Name [edit]
Under the official FIFA Trigramme, The Gibraltarian national team’s name is abbreviated as GIB, which is also the country's code
Kit [edit]
The Gibraltarian national team kits is currently produced by German sport company Adidas, It is all-white with red details to reflect the colours of the Gibraltarian national flag.
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Current squad [edit]
The following 23 players have been selected for the Gibraltar Senior Festival Cup in 2010.[7]
