Ethiopia national football team

Ethiopia
	Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)	The Walya Antelopes
Association	Ethiopian Football Federation
Confederation	CAF (Africa)
Head coach	Iffy Onuora
Most caps	Luciano Vassalo
Home stadium	Addis Abeba Stadium
FIFA code	ETH
First colours	Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	146
Highest	86 (September 2006, ; June 2007, February 2008)
Lowest	155 (December 2001)
First international
	Ethiopia 5 - 0 French Somaliland ; (Ethiopia; 1 May 1947)
Biggest win
	Ethiopia 7 - 0 Tanzania ; (Ethiopia; 8 October 1969); Ethiopia 8 - 1 Djibouti ; (Ethiopia; 27 March 1983)
Biggest defeat
	Nigeria 6 - 0 Ethiopia ; (Lagos, Nigeria; 24 July 1993);
African Nations Cup
Appearances	9 (first in 1957)
Best result	Winners, 1962

The Ethiopian national football team, nicknamed The Walya Antelopes is controlled by the Ethiopian Football Federation. It was one of only three teams (along with Egypt and Sudan) to participate in the inaugural African Nations Cup in 1957. Ethiopia won the competition in 1962 when it was the host, but success has been elusive since the end of the 1960s. Iffy Onuora is the current manager, after accepting the job in July 2010.

History

Early days

Ethiopia has a long football tradition and was among the pioneers of international competition in Africa, playing its first international match in 1947, defeating a French Somaliland selection 5-0. The team took part in the inaugural African Nations Cup in 1957,^[1] and won the African tournament on home soil in 1962.

The increasing number of national teams in Africa left Ethiopia as one of the lowest ranked African national football teams. Ethiopia hosted the Nations Cup tournament in 1976 (but failed to progress to the final four) and last qualified for the tournament in 1982.

Recent times

In the 2004 African Nations Cup qualifiers, Ethiopians missed out on qualification by 3 points, losing their final game in Guinea. In the 2008 qualifiers, they finished bottom of their group after losing their last two games.