All you need to know about history of Mauritius football team

Mauritius will go up against the Indian football team in the Intercontinental Cup.

Mauritius National Football team are one of the three teams who will be taking part in the upcoming Intercontinental Cup that is set to take place in India from 3 September. Hosts India and Syria are the other two participating nations. Hyderabad’s Gachibowli Stadium last witnessed international football 16 years ago when it hosted the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008.

This is not the first time that the Mauritius football team are taking part in a tournament held in India. They previously participated in the Tri-Nation Series in 2017. They didn’t have a good outing in that edition as they finished third in the friendly competition behind the other two contesting teams Saint Kitts & Nevis and India. They will look to put up a better show when they return to India this time.

Mauritius are currently ranked 179th in the FIFA Rankings but it doesn’t tell the entire story. They are a quality side who have been putting up strong performances in the ongoing FIFA World Cup Africa Qualifiers. They recently defeated a higher-ranked Eswatini side in June and are placed 5th in Group D. With six more matches to go in the first round of the Qualifiers, they are still in contention to qualify for the second round.

The Mauritius National team is overseen by the Mauritius Football Association. They are the governing body of football in the island country. It was founded in 1952. The MFA is part of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and its sub-confederation is the Council of Southern Africa Football Association (COSAFA).

In 1947, the Mauritius football team first played its international match against Reunion which they won by a 2-1 scoreline. They participated in the Indian Ocean Games Triangulaire every year with Reunion and Madagascar from 1947 to 1958 and one last time in 1963.

Later on, they also played in the Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) which was organized by the International Olympic Committee and held every four years. Mauritius won the Indian Ocean Triangulaire 10 times and the Indian Ocean Islands Games twice in 1985 and 2003.

In the 1960s, they started playing friendlies against neighboring countries while also taking part in high-profile competitions like FIFA World Cup Qualifiers and AFCON Qualifiers but they didn’t achieve much success. The Dodos haven’t qualified for the FIFA World Cup yet. However, they managed to make it to the 1974 African Cup of Nations where they got eliminated in the group stage.

The national team’s performances only declined starting in the 2000s. They experienced a huge decline in the FIFA Rankings falling from 116 in 2000 to a record low of 202 in 2012 but they have slowly improved since then and are now berthed at 179 in the latest FIFA Rankings.

Some Notable Achievements

Mauritius plays in the COSAFA Cup annually and have reached the quarter-finals twice in 2001 and 2004 – their best-ever finishes. They also qualified for the African Cup of Nations once in 1974.

The year 2003 went quite well for the Big M’s as they convincingly won the Indian Ocean Islands Games under Akbar Patel. They won it once before as well in the year 1985.

In a friendly tournament organized by the Mauritius FA last year, they won 1-0 against a much stronger team in Kenya. They defeated Pakistan 3-0 in the same tournament.

In 2023, they also secured a 1-0 win and a draw against Angola who ranked well within the top 100 of the FIFA rankings.

Key Player

Goalkeeper Kevin Jean Louis is one of the most experienced players in the squad. He made his debut for the national team in 2009 and has over 60 caps.

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