The Belize national football team represents

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

in international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and is controlled by the Football Federation of Belize, a member of the

Central American Football Union The Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol (Central American Football Union), more commonly known by the acronym UNCAF, represents the national football teams of Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and P ...

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

. Although Belize has never qualified for a

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

tournament, it has once qualified for a

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup () is an association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for men's senior national teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The tournament is held every two ...

championship in

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, in which they were eliminated in the group stage. Belize has also competed in the sub-regional Central American Cup championship in which their best result was fourth place in

. The nickname for the players of the national team is the "

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

s".

History

Overview

Named

British Honduras British Honduras was a Crown colony on the east coast of Central America — specifically located on the southern edge of the Yucatan Peninsula from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony — renamed Belize from June 1973

whilst under British colonial rule, the country's first international game came on February 19, 1928, beating

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

1–0. Following independence, Belize's first game came on December 8, 1983, in a 2–0 loss against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in Belize. Although Belize gained independence from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 1981 (and many of the UK's current colonies have international teams), Belize did not begin to regularly play international football until 1995. It made its debut at the

1995 UNCAF Nations Cup Six national Association football, football teams from Central America competed in the 1995 UNCAF Nations Cup (''Copa Centroamericana''). The winning team were the defending champions Honduras national football team, Honduras, who defeated Guatem ...

and was eliminated in the first round after losing to

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

and

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

. Belize has never qualified for 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 name is ...

but finished fourth in the

2013 Copa Centroamericana The 2013 Copa Centroamericana was the 12th Copa Centroamericana, the regional championship for men's national association football teams in Central America. It was organized by the ''Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol'' or UNCAF, and took place in ...

. Their fourth-place finish in the 2013 Copa Centroamericana gave Belize its first qualification to a major international competition, that being the

2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 12th CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and the 22nd CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's fifty years of existence. The United States was the host nation. The competition began on July 7, 2013, at the ...

June 2011 suspension by FIFA

On June 15, 2011, Belize kicked off its

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA#Structure, FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil national football team, Bra ...

campaign against minnows

Montserrat Montserrat ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, wit ...

, winning 2–5 away in a match played in the

Ato Boldon Stadium The Ato Boldon Stadium is an athletics and football stadium located in Balmain, Couva, Trinidad and Tobago. It is currently the home ground of Central and Club Sando. History The stadium was constructed for the 2001 FIFA U-17 World Championshi ...

Couva Couva is a town in west-central Trinidad, south of Port of Spain and Chaguanas and north of San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, San Fernando and Point Fortin. It is the capital and main urban centre of Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo, and the Greate ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

. However, the return which was scheduled for June 19 was postponed by FIFA when they suspended the FFB due to governmental interference.

Team image

In February 2023 the Football Federation of Belize unveiled a new logo that would represent Belize’s national teams. Created by Rolando Ramirez, the new logo prominently features a Jaguar, the nickname of the team. The FFB hoped that the new image would promote unity and pride in the Belize football community.

Rivalries

The Belizean footballers often say that their rivals is

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Stadium

FFB Stadium in

Belmopan Belmopan () is the capital city of Belize. Its population in 2010 was 16,451. Belmopan is the smallest capital city in the continental Americas (by population) and the third-largest settlement in Belize, behind Belize City and San Ignacio. Fou ...

is the home stadium for the Belize national football team. Prior to this stadium, Belize had no facilities that met FIFA specifications. Apart from this Belize has many fields to play on but with no facilities for the players.

Results and fixtures

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

2024

2025

Coaching staff

Coaching history

Since the creation of the national team in 1995, several coaches have been in charge of managing Belize. From 1995 to 1996, Winston Michael was appointed as Belize's first ever manager. , the Belize national football team has had 11 managers.

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF second round matches against

and

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

on 4 and 7 June 2025. ''Caps and goals correct as of 25 March 2025, after the match against

.''

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up within the past 12 months.

Records

:''Players in bold are still active with Belize.''

Most appearances

Top goalscorers

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

CONCACAF Gold Cup

CONCACAF Nations League

Copa Centroamericana

The 1995 tournament in

saw Belize's international debut. They played the hosts in their first-ever international on November 29 in Group A.

won 3–0 with all goals coming in the second half. On December 1, Belize scored their first-ever international goal as they lost 2–1 to

and were eliminated from the tournament. Both other teams advanced to the semi-finals and were defeated there, Costa Rica's conqueror

beat

in the final.

Head-to-head record

''Updated on 7 June after match against ''

References

External links

* of the Football Federation of Belize
Belize
at FIFA.com (archived 4 June 2007) * {{National sports teams of Belize Central American national association football teams 1995 establishments in Belize Association football clubs established in 1995