Origins (1976–2003) Many teams have represented Western Sahara, or the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), in unofficial matches. One of the earliest known football games of the Sahrawi national team took place in 1976, when they faced off against veterans of the
FLN football team. The historic match was held at the iconic
20 August Stadium in Algiers, and the Sahrawi team was coached by
Rachid Mekhloufi, an esteemed figure in Algerian football More friendlies would be played later on in 1984 against different teams of the Algerian football league. In 1986–87, the Sahrawi selection would go to face different Italian and Spanish teams before formally establishing the Sahrawi Football Federation in 1989. A year before that In 1988, the Sahrawi selection would even face
Le Mans UC 72 in
France, in a game they would lose 3–2. More games would be played in 1994 as part of a friendlies tour of Algeria, before disappearing off the radar in the following years. On 27 February 2001, during the 25th anniversary of the proclamation of the SADR, a match was played in the Sahrawi refugee camps in
Tindouf,
Algeria between a Sahrawi Republic team and a
Basque Country veterans team. The match was attended by more than 4,000 fans, but was abandoned during the second half owing to the temperature (38 °C) with the score tied at 2–2. A year later on 8 May 2002, another game was set between "Rock no war", a foundation dedicated to promoting peace through music and sports, and the newly established Sahrawi national team. The game ended with a victory for the latter by a score of 6–2.
NF-Board membership and foundation (2003–2012) On 12 December 2003, the Sahrawi Football Federation (SFF) became one of the first members to be provisionally affiliated to the
New Football Federations-Board (N.F.-Board) . The SFF failed to attend the 2006 N.F.-Board AGM but were present in the 6th General Assembly held on 5 December 2009 in
Paris,
France. In 2007, a team representing Western Sahara beat
Macau 1–0. On 23 December 2011, a mixed-gender team from the Spanish region of
Galicia beat a team composed of members of the Sahrawi
diaspora in
Spain 2–1, in a match played in
Teo that was attended by 1,500 fans.
2012 VIVA World Cup On 25 March 2012, Mohamed Moulud Mohamed Fadel, SADR Minister for Youth and Sports, announced the official creation of the Sahrawi national football team. After which, the minister announced that the national team would be participating in the upcoming
VIVA World Cup held in Iraqi Kurdistan. Trials were held a few days later in the camps and eventually a team of 20 players was selected, all of them playing for local teams. The team held a five-day internship at the "Chahid Am-mi Lamjeilil" Officer Training School in preparation, and on 30 May, the Sahrawi selection traveled to the Algerian capital, where they conducted a short training session at
Omar Hamadai Stadium in
Bologhine before leaving for the competition. All members of the Sahrawi mission traveled to Arbil using
Sahrawi passports. However, when presented to the Kurdish authorities, the latter initially refused to grant the selection entry, stating that the document was not recognized. The authorities insisted that the team could only enter under the name of Morocco, which the team refused, stating that they would rather wait for a plane back than do so. After some negotiations with the Kurdistan government, however, the team was finally granted entry. Thus, the Sahrawi national football team made its official international debut at the inauguration match of the VIVA World Cup, playing against the host team,
Kurdistan at the
Franso Hariri Stadium in
Arbil,
Iraq on 4 June 2012.
The Dromedaries lost 6–0 to the team which went on to win the tournament. Their next match was against
Occitania, a 6–2 defeat, and the team finished in third position in Group A. The next match was a play-off against
Darfur, and ended in a 5–1 victory, Sahrawi's first official international victory. They beat
Raetia 3–0 before losing the fifth place match 3–1 to Occitania. The Sahrawi national football team and federation had to face a deal made between the
Kurdistan Regional Government and the
Government of Morocco, which consisted of avoiding the display of the SADR flag during ceremonies and matches of the tournament. Despite this, the SADR team managed to arrange extraofficial deals with all their rivals to fly the Sahrawi flag wave on the stadiums where they played their matches.
ConIFA and Zamenhof Cup (2012–2020) On 31 July 2015, the Sahrawi team beat the Esperanto Team by 4–0 at the
Stadium Lille Métropole. The match was part of the
Zamenhof Cup, an event during the 100th
World Esperanto Congress. On 13 April 2018, the
ConIFA announced the death of El-Mahfoud Welad, the goalkeeper of the Western Sahara national team, who was killed during the
2018 Algerian Air Force Il-76 crash. In 2020, Western Sahara would participate in the
2020 CONIFA World Football Cup, but due to logistical problems, the team withdrew from playing in the competition, which would later be cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Present (2020–present) In June 2020, Western Sahara joined the
World Unity Football Alliance. The ambassador of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Algeria,
Abdelkader Taleb Omar, announced on 18 May 2023 in Algiers the "official birth" of the Sahrawi football team, on the occasion of the festivities marking the 50th anniversary of the creation of the
Polisario Front. Led by Mohandi Abdelahy Mulay, the Sahrawi selection played against the dean of Algerian clubs, the historic
Mouloudia Club of Algiers, at the new
'Nelson Mandela' stadium in Baraki, on the outskirts of the Algerian capital. The match ended 6–1 in favor of the Algerian club. Mustafa Troncoso, a skilled striker representing
Coria CF in Spain, managed to find the back of the net in the first minutes of the game and secured the sole goal for the Sahrawi team. Most Sahrawi players in the selection compete in various football leagues in Spain, France, Germany, and Sweden, with the addition of three other players who play on teams from the
Refugee camps in Tindouf. The second game in the Western Sahara national football team's friendly series in Algeria was played three days later at the Mabrouki Salem Stadium in
Rouiba. They faced against MC Rouiba, a club that evolved in the
Honour Division 1 of the Algerian Championship. The match ended on a 3–3 tie with Fadili Deich,
Ali Radjel and Boulahi Nan scoring the goals for the Sahrawi selection. The Sahrawi national football team was honored at the headquarters of Algerian newspaper
El Moudjahid, overseen by the Mishaal El Shaheed Association. The ceremony was attended by several dignitaries including the Algerian Minister of Mujahideen, and the Sahrawi Ambassador to Algeria, along with other ambassadors from several countries. The team received honorary medals, and their achievements were praised as a step towards international recognition. The event highlighted pledges of future support and the establishment of internships for the team in participating countries. ==Team image==