The South Yemen national football team (Arabic: منتخب اليمن الجنوبي الوطني لكرة القدم), recognised as Yemen DPR by FIFA, represented South Yemen in men's international football, playing as one of two Yemeni teams, along with North Yemen.
| 1965–1989 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Nickname(s) | Soqoor Al-Janoub (The South Falcons) (صقور الجنوب) | ||
| Association | PDR Yemen Football Federation الاتحاد اليمني لكرة القدم | ||
| Most caps | Abubakar Al-Mass (12) | ||
| Top scorer | Mohammed Hussein (3) | ||
| Home stadium | Mortayer Yard | ||
| FIFA code | YMD | ||
| |||
| First international | |||
 Palestine 1–0 Aden  (Cairo, United Arab Republic; 2 September 1965) | |||
| Last international | |||
 South Yemen 1–0 Guinea  (Kuwait City, Kuwait; 5 November 1989) | |||
| Biggest win | |||
South Yemen 2–0 Iraq  (Aden, South Yemen; 2 May 1974) South Yemen 2–0 Mauritania  (Damascus, Syria; 12 October 1976) | |||
| Biggest defeat | |||
 Algeria 15–1 South Yemen (Tripoli, Libya; 17 August 1973)  United Arab Republic 14–0 Aden (Cairo, United Arab Republic; 3 September 1965) | |||
| AFC Asian Cup | |||
| Appearances | 1 (first in 1976) | ||
| Best result | Group stage (1976) | ||
After Yemeni unification in 1990, the PDR Yemen Football Federation , and with it the South Yemeni team, joined the Yemen Football Association (YFA) and the North Yemen national football team.
History
Aden (1965)
The first international tournament in South Yemen was the Football at the 1965 Pan Arab Games, which at the time was Aden Colony (a colony of United Kingdom). The tournament was hosted in United Arab Republic where it was eliminated on the group stage, losing 1–0 to Palestine, 14–0 to United Arab Republic being his biggest defeat, 6–0 to Iraq and 4–3 to Lebanon.
South Yemen (1967–1990)
The first participation of the newly independent, South Yemen, was in the 1972 Palestine Cup of Nations, where in their group, they lost 0–1 against Syria, beat Palestine and Qatar, both 2–1, and in the last round, they lost against Algeria by 1–4.
South Yemen has only played in the AFC Asian Cup since the 1976 edition, qualifying automatically, due to the other teams having given up playing in the knockout tournament, with the final tournament being held in Iran. They were placed in Group B with the hosts Iran and Iraq. South Yemen lost to Iraq 0–1 and then Iran 0–8 in the group stage.
South Yemen competed in qualification for the only time for the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. They were placed in Group 4 of Zone A in the first round against Iran and Bahrain. Iran was disqualified before the games were played, due to refusal to move their games to neutral grounds away from the Iran–Iraq War. South Yemen hosted Bahrain on 12 March 1985 and lost 4–1 in Mortayer Yard (now 22 May Stadium), Aden. On 12 April they drew, 3–3, at the Bahrain National Stadium in Manama after leading 3–1. This saw Bahrain advance through.
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After that campaign, they would play again three later against Djibouti in a friendly, months later, they played for the 1988 AFC Asian Cup qualification losing 0–1 to Indonesia, drawing 1–1 against South Korea, and in the end losing 0–2 to Bahrain, being at the bottom of the group.
The last time The South Falcons took to the field was at the 1989 Peace and Friendship Cup tournament held in Kuwait, where in their group, they lost 0–2 to the Iran, also lost to Iraq but 2–6, and in the last one played by South Yemen, they won 1–0 against Guinea.
With the Yemeni unification in May 1990, the South Yemen team was dissolved, and its players migrated to the newly created Yemen, but it was the North Yemen which was considered the legitimate predecessor of the now Yemeni team.
Competitive record
FIFA World Cup record
| FIFA World Cup | Qualification record | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Result | Position | Pld | W | D* | L | GF | GA | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | |||
| as Aden | |||||||||||||||||
| 1930 | Part of United Kingdom | Part of United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||
| 1934 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1938 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1950 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1954 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1958 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1962 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1966 | |||||||||||||||||
| as South Yemen | |||||||||||||||||
| 1970 | Did not enter | Did not enter | |||||||||||||||
| 1974 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1978 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1982 | |||||||||||||||||
| 1986 | Did not qualify | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | ||||||||||
| 1990 | Withdrew | Withdrew | |||||||||||||||
| Total | – | 0/6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | |||
AFC Asian Cup record
| AFC Asian Cup record | Qualification record | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Result | Position | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Squad | Pld | W | D* | L | GF | GA | |
| as Aden | ||||||||||||||||
| 1956 | Not member of AFC | Not member of AFC | ||||||||||||||
| 1960 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1964 | ||||||||||||||||
| as South Yemen | ||||||||||||||||
| 1968 | Not member of AFC | Not member of AFC | ||||||||||||||
| 1972 | Did not enter | Did not enter | ||||||||||||||
| 1976 | Group stage | 6th | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 | Squad | Qualified by default | ||||||
| 1980 | Withdrew | Withdrew | ||||||||||||||
| 1984 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1988 | Did not qualify | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||||||||
| Total | Group stage | 1/9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 | — | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |
Asian Games
Pan Arab Games
| Pan Arab Games record | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Result | Position | Pld | W | D* | L | GF | GA |
| 1953 | Did not enter | |||||||
| 1957 | ||||||||
| 1961 | ||||||||
| 1965 | Group stage | 9th | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 25 |
| 1976 | Fourth place | 4th | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 8 |
| 1985 | Did not enter | |||||||
| Total | Fourth place | 2/6 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 33 |
Palestine Cup of Nations
| Palestine Cup of Nations record | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Result | Position | Pld | W | D* | L | GF | GA |
| 1972 | Group stage | 5th | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| 1973 | 9th | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 27 | |
| 1975 | Did not enter | |||||||
| Total | Group stage | 2/3 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 34 |
Coaches
| No. | Name | Period |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nasr Chadli | 1972 |
| 2 | Ali Mohsen Al-Moraisi Al-Moraisi | 1975–1976 |
| 3 | Abbas Ghulam | 1982 |
| 4 | Timur Segizbaev | 1982–1985 |
| 5 | Azzam Khalifa | ?–March 1985 |
| 6 | Abdullah Saleh Khobani | April 1985–? |
| 7 | Awad Awadan | 1986–? |
| 8 | Abbas Ghulam | 1988 |
| 9 | Mubarak Qadhi | 1989 |
Results and head-to-head records
Results Review
| Nation | Confederation | P | W | D | L | Win % | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Yemen | AFC (Asia) | 44 | 9 | 5 | 30 | 26.92% | 41 | 142 | –101 |
Head to head records
- Key
The list shown below shows the South Yemen national football team all-time international record against opposing nations.
| Opponent | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algeria | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 19 | –17 |
| China | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 17 | –9 |
| Bahrain | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 9 | –5 |
| Djibouti | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | –3 |
| Egypt | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 19 | –19 |
| Ethiopia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Guinea | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 |
| Indonesia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | –1 |
| Iran | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 12 | –12 |
| Iraq | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 18 | –14 |
| Japan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | –2 |
| Jordan | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Kuwait | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | –4 |
| Lebanon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | –1 |
| Libya | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 | –10 |
| Mauritania | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | +2 |
| Morocco | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | –4 |
| Palestine | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Qatar | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 |
| Saudi Arabia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | +2 |
| South Korea | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | –3 |
| Sudan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | –1 |
| Syria | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | –1 |
| United Arab Emirates | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 44 | 9 | 5 | 30 | 41 | 142 | –101 |
Player records
- As of 5 November 1989
| Rank | Name | Goals | Caps | Ratio | Career |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mohammed Hussein | 3 | 2 | 1.5 | 1989 |
| 2 | Abubakar Ibrahim Al-Mass | 2 | 12 | 0.17 | 1975–1988 |
| 3 | Adnan Ahmed Al-Sabou | 1 | – | – | 1982–1985 |
| Jamil Saif | – | – | 1973–1976 | ||
| Saleem Ahmed Mehdi | 3 | 0.33 | 1982 | ||
| Kassim Tariq Abdullah | – | – | 1985–1988 | ||
| Maher Hassan Saleh | 3 | 0.33 | 1988 | ||
| Wagdan Mahmoud Shadli | – | – | 1985–1989 |