Not all of us even heard of such a minute island country as New Caledonia. But nevertheless, the country has its own football federation - the Fédération Calédonienne de Football, which takes control over the New Caledonia national team. The federation was founded in 1928 but the national team played its first international game against New Zealand only in 1951. The team is the Oceania Football Confederation member since 1969 and affiliated to FIFA only in 2004.
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France. And if in politics the country longs for independence from France, in football it totally dependent from Alain Moizan, the French head coach of the national team.
The minnow on the international football arena, New Caledonia has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup, and it’s no wonder as the countries from the smallest football confederation have to go a long way ahead of qualification. Nevertheless, the team is a regular participant in the OFC Nations Cup where it finished 3d in 1973 and 1980, and was a runner-up twice in 2008 and 2012. It seems to be a great achievement for a tiny country for which any rival beyond Oceania is formidable.
The team’s best high-scoring victories were over Guam and Micronesia as New Caledonia thrashed them 18-0 in both cases. It suffered its biggest 0-11 loss to Australia in 2002.
New Caledonia is currently ranked 128th in the FIFA table reaching their highest ever ranking of the 95th.
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