Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

is the national sport of

Aruba Aruba, officially the Country of Aruba, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the southern Caribbean Sea north of the Venezuelan peninsula of Paraguaná Peninsula, Paraguaná and northwest of Curaçao. In 19 ...

. Aruban football has been influenced and helped greatly by the national

Royal Dutch Football Association The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues ( Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch men's and w ...

over the years. The Aruba national team is normally placed near the bottom of the

FIFA World Rankings The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, first introduced in December 1992. The men's teams of the member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their gam ...

System.

History

The

Arubaanse Voetbal Bond The Arubaanse Voetbal Bond is the governing body of football in Aruba. Its headquarters are at Frans Figaroa sports complex in the city of Noord. It's a member of FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonl ...

, which governs football on the island, was formed in 1932 although it did not affiliate to

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 ...

until 1988. The AVB is a member of the

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 ...

governing body. The national league competition, the

Aruban Division di Honor Aruban Division di Honor or Campeonato AVB Aruba Bank is the top level association football league in Aruba. It is overseen by the Arubaanse Voetbal Bond and was created in 1960. Up to and including 1985, the top clubs from Aruba also entered ...

, was established in 1960 with the most successful teams being

SV Dakota Sport Vereniging Dakota (''English:Sports Club''), known as SV Dakota or simply Dakota is an Aruban football club based in Oranjestad, Dakota, which currently play in Aruba's first division. Achievements * Aruban Division di Honor: 17 :: 1961 ...

and

SV Racing Club Aruba Sport Vereniging Racing Club Aruba, known as SV Racing Club Aruba or RCA, is an Aruban football club based in Oranjestad, which currently play in Aruban Division di Honor, the nation's top-level league. they have won 17 titles since the league's ...

with 17 titles and

SV Estrella Sport Vereniging Estrella is an Aruban football club, which currently plays in Aruba's first division. They are based in Papilon, Santa Cruz. The team is one of the most successful in Aruban football, and they are one of the two Aruban teams th ...

with twelve. Until 1985 Aruban clubs also entered the

Netherlands Antilles Championship Netherlands Antilles Championship or Kopa Antiano was the premier association football competition in the Netherlands Antilles, overseen by the Nederlands Antilliaanse Voetbal Unie. The championship was contested by the top teams of the Curaçao L ...

with two winning,

in 1965 and SV Estrella in 1970. There are currently 62 registered clubs in Aruba with a total of 10,700 players and 126 officials involved in the game.Aruba country info
on FIFA.com

League system

International

Although the Aruba national football team made its debut as early as 1924 Aruban players officially represented the

Netherlands Antilles national football team The Netherlands Antilles national football team (; ) was the national team of the former Netherlands Antilles from 1958 to 2010. It was controlled by the Nederlands Antilliaanse Voetbal Unie. The NAVU consisted of Curaçao national football tea ...

until a split was finalised in 1986. Although attempts have been Aruba have never qualified for the

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 ...

or the

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 ...

. The country is also a member of the

Caribbean Football Union The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) is the representative organization for football (soccer), football associations in the Caribbean. It represents 25 FIFA member nations, as well as 6 territories that are not affiliated with FIFA. The Union was e ...

but they have yet to qualify for the

Caribbean Cup The Caribbean Cup was an association football competition organized by CFU as its top regional tournament for men's senior national teams from the Caribbean. The tournament was held from 1989 to 2017, as the direct successor competition of the ...

Football stadiums in Aruba

References

External links