French Somaliland (1947–1960) Djibouti played its first international match under the name
French Somaliland, at home against neighbouring
Ethiopia on 5 December 1947 and lost 5–0. This was also Ethiopia's debut. The two played again in Djibouti on 1 June 1948 and Ethiopia won 2–1. On 1 May 1949, the fixture was played for the
Emperor Cup in Ethiopia, and the host won 6–0. In 1954, Djibouti played Ethiopia three times: a 10–2 away loss on 1 May, a 2–0 home loss on 1 June and a 2–1 home loss the day after. Djibouti did not play a match again until 1960, when it entered a tournament for French-speaking countries held in
Madagascar. The team lost 9–2 in the first round to
Cameroon on 13 April. This was the squad's last game as French Somaliland.
Djibouti (1977–present) After gaining independence in 1977, the team played under the name Djibouti for the first time against Ethiopia in an away match on 27 March 1983 and lost 8–1. The two played again two days later with Ethiopia again victorious, by 4–2. After a third friendly against Ethiopia, a 2–0 home defeat on 23 March 1984, Djibouti entered a tournament in Ethiopia against the host and
Zimbabwe. They lost 2–0 to Ethiopia on 3 June and then 3–1 to Zimbabwe on 7 June. Djibouti's first appearance at the
CECAFA Cup, a local competition for nations in East and Central Africa, was in Kenya in 1994. These were its first matches since defeating South Yemen in 1988. The Djibouti squad lost 4–1 to the hosts on 28 November, 2–1 to
Somalia on 1 December, and 3–0 to
Tanzania on 3 December. Djibouti did not advance to the next round. After the 1994 CECAFA Cup, Djibouti did not play a match until the qualification campaign for the
1998 African Cup of Nations in
Burkina Faso. They were drawn in a two-legged qualifier against Kenya, and lost the first leg 3–0 away on 31 July 1998. The second leg at home was lost 9–1 on 15 August and Kenya went through 12–1 on aggregate. In 1998, Djibouti became a member of the
Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA). The football squad has since participated in the
Arab Games, a regional
multi-sport event held between nations from the
Arab World. Djibouti entered its first ever World Cup qualification in an attempt to reach the
2002 FIFA World Cup in
South Korea and
Japan. In Pool D of the first round of
African qualification, it was drawn against the
DR Congo in a two-legged qualifying preliminary. Djibouti hosted the first leg at
Stade du Ville in
Djibouti on 7 April 2000, drawing the match 1–1 before a crowd of 2,700 fans. The squad lost the second leg 9–1 away at the
Stade des Martyrs in
Kinshasa and the DR Congo advanced 10–2 on aggregate. Djibouti has never played in the
African Cup of Nations, with the team regularly withdrawing or not entering for financial reasons. Prior to their four preliminary qualifiers in late 2019, Djibouti had 2 wins, 3 draws and 55 defeats from 60 competitive matches. However, a number of new players were called up and results finally improved. First, in the
2022 FIFA World Cup qualification, Djibouti beat
Eswatini 2–1 at home and drew 0–0 in
Manzini to advance to the second round for the first time since the 2010 qualifying when they beat Somalia 1-0 (2–1 on aggregate). This was a massive improvement from the previous edition when Djibouti had also played Eswatini and lost 8–1 on aggregate. One month later, Djibouti played two 1–1 draws against
Gambia in the
2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification preliminary round, only losing the tie on penalties. ==Results and fixtures==