The most popular sport in Mauritania is football, which is run by the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. The association administers the Mauritanian national football team, as well as the

Mauritanian Premier League Super D1 ( ar, الدوري الموريتاني الممتاز), is the top division of the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. It was created in 1976. Current clubs (2021–22) Previous winners *1976: AS Garde Natio ...

. Mauritania has an international football team who play and train at the Olympic Stadium. They qualified for their first Africa Cup of Nations in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. Mauritania's premier national tournament is the ''Coupe du President de la Republique'' (President's Cup). The nation's best-known and most successful team is

ASC Garde Nationale Association Sportive de la Garde Nationale ( ar, الجمعية الرياضية للحرس الوطني) known as AS Garde Nationale is a Mauritanian football club based in Nouakchott. History The club was founded in Nouakchott. It was know ...

of the Mauritanian Premier League. Mauritania has a competitive

basketball team Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. However, they have been inactive since the 1980s. Their last participation was in the

FIBA Africa Championship 1985 The FIBA Africa Championship 1985 was hosted by Ivory Coast from December 20 to December 28, 1985. The games were played in Abidjan. Ivory Coast won the tournament, its second African Championship, by beating Angola , national_anthem ...

, where they got 6th place. Mauritania has a national rugby union team. Rugby union is a small sport in the country, but it has become more popular. The team has never appeared in the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, but has played friendlies against neighboring countries.

References

{{Mauritania-sport-stub