Mauritius national football team

The Mauritius national football team (French: Équipe de Maurice de football), nicknamed Club M and Les Dodos (The Dodos), is the national team of Mauritius. They are overseen by the Mauritius Football Association and are members of FIFA, the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA). The head coach is Boualem Mankour.

This article is about the men's team. For the women's team, see Mauritius women's national football team.

Mauritius
Nickname(s)Club M, Les Dodos
AssociationMauritius Football Association
ConfederationCAF (Africa)
Sub-confederationCOSAFA
(Southern Africa)
Head coachBoualem Mankour
CaptainKevin Bru
Most capsHenri Speville (72)
Top scorerDaniel Imbert (17)
Home stadiumStade George V
FIFA codeMRI
First colours
Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current 172 (10 December 2020)[1]
Highest112 (December 1992)
Lowest203 (November 2012)
First international
 Mauritius 2–1 Réunion 
(Madagascar; 1947)
Biggest win
 Mauritius 15–2 Réunion 
(Madagascar; 1950)
Biggest defeat
 Egypt 7–0 Mauritius 
(Port Said, Egypt; 8 June 2003)
 Seychelles 7–0 Mauritius 
(Witbank, South Africa; 19 July 2008)
 Senegal 7–0 Mauritius 
(Dakar, Senegal; 9 October 2010)
Africa Cup of Nations
Appearances1 (first in 1974)
Best resultGroup stage, 1974

Their most significant achievements are qualification for the 1974 African Cup of Nations, and winning the Indian Ocean Island Games football tournament in 1985 and 2003. They have also been a finalist in this competition in 1990, 2011 and 2019.

History

Early years

Mauritius played its first competitive international game in 1947 against Réunion, which they won 2–1. For the next twenty years, they would only play Réunion and Madagascar (probably due to the close proximity of the three islands to each other) in friendlies and the Indian Ocean Games Triangulaire, which existed from 1947–1963. Mauritius won the competition ten times over that time period, were runners-up twice, and came in third once.

1960s–1990s

Starting in 1967, Mauritius began competing against other countries, playing friendlies and entering in such competitions as the Africa Cup of Nations and the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, though they haven't found much success. While they have never qualified for the World Cup finals, they have qualified once for the Africa Cup of Nations, in 1974, however, they were eliminated in the group stages. Mauritius did manage to win the resurrected Indian Ocean Games in 1985. In 1999, after deadly riots caused by supporters of Scouts Club (renamed as Port Louis Sporting Club[2]) angry about a controversial penalty awarded to Fire Brigade Sports Club (now renamed as Pamplemousses SC[2]) in the championship deciding game, which gave Fire Brigade a 1–0 win, all domestic football was suspended for 18 months, and only the national team was allowed to play. This is regarded as the point at which Mauritian football, both on the domestic and international stage, started on a downward slope.

The new millennium to present day

Throughout the new millennium, the national team's performances progressively declined. From a high of the 116th place in the FIFA rankings in 2000, they tumbled down to an all-time low of the 195th place in the Summer of 2011. The best result since the 1974 CAN Championship has been reaching the quarterfinals of the 2004 COSAFA Cup, beating South Africa 2–0 in January 2004. Mauritius eventually lost out 3–1 to the tournament's favourites Zambia. Mauritius has also cycled through many head coaches, especially since the new millennium, but none have had true success. Mauritius did win its second IOG championship in the 2003 edition, held in Mauritius, under head coach Akbar Patel. Besides that, Mauritius has lost a majority of its matches.

During 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualification, Les Dodos achieved their best results in many year, defeating both Mozambique and Rwanda. However, they were unable to build on these wins, losing to Comoros and then São Tomé and Príncipe in the preliminary round of the next two editions.

Awards and records

Indian Ocean Games Triangulaire (10) :

Main article: Mauritius at the Indian Ocean Games Triangulaire

Indian Ocean Games (2) :

World Cup record
FIFA World Cup record FIFA World Cup qualification record
Year Round Position Pld W D L GF GA Pld W D L GF GA
1930 to
1970		 Did not enter Did not enter
1974 Did not qualify 2 0 1 1 3 5
1978 to
1982		 Did not enter Did not enter
1986 Did not qualify 2 0 0 2 0 5
1990 Banned by FIFA Banned by FIFA
1994 Did not enter Did not enter
1998 Did not qualify 2 0 0 2 1 7
2002 2 0 0 2 2 6
2006 2 1 0 1 3 4
2010 6 0 1 5 3 17
2014 Withdrew during qualifying Withdrew during qualifying
2018 Did not qualify 2 0 1 1 2 5
2022 Did not qualify 2 0 0 2 0 3
2026 To be determined To be determined
Total 20 1 3 16 14 52

Africa Cup of Nations record
Main article: Mauritius at the Africa Cup of Nations
Africa Cup of Nations record
Host nation(s) / Year Round Position Pld W D* L GF GA
1957 Not affiliated to CAF
1959
1962
1963
1965
1968 Did not qualify
1970
1972
1974 Group stage 8th 3 0 0 3 2 8
1976 Did not qualify
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988 Withdrew
1990 Did not qualify
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2013 Did not enter
2015 Did not qualify
2017
2019
2021
2023 To be determined
TotalRound 11/32300328

International matches record

Team image

Media coverage

For most home games of significant importance, the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation provides televised coverage.

Uniforms

Mauritius had relied on local clothing manufacturers to provide their uniforms before switching to Adidas in 2009. For home matches, Mauritius has white uniforms with red trim, while for road matches, the colors are switched. Emblazoned on the front is the MFA badge on the left and the Mauritian flag on the right. As from 2017, Spanish sportswear company Joma took over as their new kit supplier. In 2019 however, they switched back to Adidas.

Supporters' groups

On 30 May 2011, the official fan club of Club M, Kop Moris, was launched. The objective of this club is to build up excitement for Mauritius' games, fill up the stands as much as possible, and create a festive and family-friendly atmosphere. This fan club is officially sanctioned by the MFA.

Stadia

Mauritius plays the majority of their games at Stade George V (cap. 6,200). Games at Stade Anjalay (cap. 18,000) are reserved for higher profile matches. A new modern stadium Complexe Sportif de Côte d'Or, part of a larger sports complex, is currently under construction and is scheduled to be opened in July 2019. Once completed, the stadium will have a capacity of 30,000 seats.

Schedule
Main article: Mauritius national football team results (2010–19)

  Win   Draw   Loss

Players

Current squad

The following is the 18-man squad for the friendly match against Singapore on 7 September 2018.

Caps and goals as of 20 January 2020, after the game against  Seychelles.

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club
1 1GK Kévin Jean-Louis (1989-06-27) 27 June 1989 48 0 Pamplemousses
13 1GK Christopher Caserne (1993-02-22) 22 February 1993 13 0 Bolton City YC
2 2DF Lindsay Rose (1992-02-08) 8 February 1992 1 0 Aris Thessaloniki F.C.
6 2DF Jean-Fabrice Augustin (1995-02-28) 28 February 1995 3 1 La Cure Sylvester
2DF Jean Francois 0 0
2DF Jonathan Spéville (1991-01-26) 26 January 1991 Bolton City Youth Club
4 2DF Walter Duprey St Martin (1984-07-07) 7 July 1984 Pamplemousses
2DF Mervyn Jocelyn (1991-08-21) 21 August 1991 2 0 Pamplemousses
5 2DF Francis Rasolofonirina (1987-07-22) 22 July 1987 46 2 Petite Rivière Noire
11 2DF Kerlson Agathe (1997-09-27) 27 September 1997 13 0 Pamplemousses
3MF Samuel Brasse (1996-07-15) 15 July 1996 26 0 Bolton City
3MF Adel Langue (1997-09-27) 27 September 1997 13 0 Deportivo Alaves
3MF Andy Patate (1985-06-18) 18 June 1985 Petite Rivière Noire
16 3MF Kévin Perticots (1996-05-01) 1 May 1996 40 6 Pamplemousses
20 3MF Jérémy Villeneuve (1994-04-25) 25 April 1994 2 0 Ivry
4FW Jonathan Justin (1991-02-27) 27 February 1991 4 0 US Colomiers Football
9 3MF Jean Nabab Savanne SC
3MF Gary Noël (1990-03-07) 7 March 1990 6 1 Weiche
7 4FW Andy Sophie (1990-05-07) 7 May 1990 53 11 Saint-Louisienne

Staff

Current staff
Position Name
Head coach Boualem Mankour
Technical Director Zunaid Mall
Assistant coach Gopal Jayasuriya
Assistant coach Chady
Physiotherapist Anuj Kumar
Head of Delegation Deepak Choudhury

Managerial history
Dates Name
1957–59 Harry Brophy
1959–63 Joseph Le Roy
1963–64 Danny McLennan
1970–88 Mohammad Anwar Elahee
1976–88 Helmut Kosmehl
1993 Rudi Gutendorf
1994–96 Mohammad Anwar Elahee
1997 Rudi Gutendorf
1998 Ashok Chundunsing
1998–02 Rajen Dorasami – France L'Aiguille
2002–03 Patrick Parizon
2003 Akbar Patel - Saoud Lallmahomed
2003–05 Elvis Antoine – Rajesh Gunesh
2006 Sarjoo Gowreesunkur
2006 Rajen Dorasami – France L'Aiguille
2007 Akbar Patel (2nd Time)
2007–08 Ashok Chundunsing
2008–09 Benjamin Théodore
2009–14 Akbar Patel (3rd Time)
2015 Didier Six
2015–16 Alain Happe
2016–17 Joe Tshupula
2017–18 Francisco Filho
2018–19 Akbar Patel (4th time)
2020- Boualem Mankour

Player records
As of 20 January 2020[3]
Players in bold text are still active with Mauritius.

See also

References
  1. "The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking". FIFA. 10 December 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  2. Mauritius 2000/01
  3. Mamrud, Roberto. "Mauritius - Record International Players". RSSSF.
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