The is the national
Football team of
Venezuela and is controlled by the
Federación Venezolana De Fútbol . It is nicknamed "'''La Vinotinto'''", because of the traditional red wine color of their uniforms.
It is historically and statistically the weakest of the 10
CONMEBOL teams (perhaps due to the enormous popularity of
Baseball in the country), and the only one which has never qualified for a
World Cup , although this has changed in the last two qualifying rounds. Often Venezuela would go through entire qualification tournaments without recording a single win. Their best finish in
Copa América was fifth in their first entry, in
1967 . The team itself has improved a lot in recent years. Analysts tend to say that Venezuela has a chance of qualifying for the next World Cup but that the team has a lot to learn yet.
Juan Arango is considered to be the best player in the current team, and gives a lot of support to his team mates.
When playing at home they usually rotate between three local stadiums: Pueblo Nuevo,
San Cristóbal ; Pachencho Romero,
Maracaibo ; and the ''Estadio Olímpico'',
Caracas .
National companies such as
Empresas Polar and Telephone suppliers
CANTV have been giving a lot of financial aid to the team and to the sport itself. The government, surprisingly, is not very keen on financing these kind of activities.
- 1930 to 1954 - ''Did not enter''
- 1958 - ''Withdrew''
- 1962 - ''Did not enter''
- 1966 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1970 - ''Did not qualify''
- 1974 - ''Withdrew''
- 1978 to 2006 - ''Did not qualify''
