The Andalusia national football team is the national football team of

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

. They are not affiliated with

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

, because Andalusia is represented internationally by the

Spain national football team The Spain national football team () has represented Spain in men's international Association football, football competitions since 1920. It is governed by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Spain. Spain i ...

. It mostly plays only

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

es.

History

In the first half of the 1920s, the ''Sur'' regional federation, which encompassed the

region and organised the Campeonato Regional Sur for the local clubs (dominated by

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, that competes in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. The club was formed on 25 January ...

), decided to follow the examples of the Catalan and Centro regional federations and selected a representative team for occasional friendly matches, however, they instead made their official debut in a competitive match, in the 1922–23 Prince of Asturias Cup, an official inter-regional tournament organized by RFEF. They participated in two editions, being knocked-out in the semi-finals by the eventual Runner-up on both occasions. During the Iberoamerican Expo in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

, 1929, Andalusia played a friendly match against Club Atlético Boca Juniors in Estadio de Heliopolis, known today as

Estadio Benito Villamarín es:Estadio is the spanish language word for Stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered s ...

. They rarely played again until 1963, when they were invited by the Castilian Federation to its 50-year celebrations, playing against

Biscay Biscay ( ; ; ), is a province of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the Bay of Biscay, eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilb ...

and then Castile. Two years later, during the Andalusia Football Federation's own 'golden jubilee', the regional select played against

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

in Estadio Sánchez Pizjuán, Seville. In the early years of the 21st century, Andalusia played an annual fixture, usually each winter, facing the likes of

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. However, other than the regions such as

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

and the Basque Country with leanings towards independence whose matches draw larger crowds, matches were rarely played by the Spanish regions in the subsequent years as they did not prove cost-effective to arrange. The main exception to this situation was when Andalucia faced Madrid for the latter's federation centenary in 2013, a repeat of their 1963 encounter.

Selected Internationals

Coaches

* José Enrique Díaz * Adolfo Aldana * Joaquín Caparrós * Manolo Ruiz Sosa

Notable players

* Kinké * Diego Tristán * José Antonio Reyes * Adrián

References

External links