The Honduras national football team (Spanish: Selección de fútbol de Honduras) represents Honduras in men's international football, which is governed by the Federación de Fútbol de Honduras (English: Federation of Football of Honduras) founded in 1935. It has been an affiliate member of FIFA since 1951 and a founding affiliate member of CONCACAF since 1961. Regionally, it is an affiliate member of UNCAF in the Central American Zone. From 1938 to 1961, it was a member of CCCF, the former governing body of football in Central America and Caribbean and a predeccessor confederation of CONCACAF, and also a member of PFC, the unified confederation of the Americas, from 1946 to 1961.
Honduras has participated twenty-three times in CONCACAF's premier continental competition, it is one of three Central American teams to have won the competition, winning the CONCACAF Championship in 1981 as hosts. The team's best performance under the CONCACAF Gold Cup format was finishing as runners-up in 1991. It has participated four times in League A of the CONCACAF Nations League, finishing in third place in the 2021 Finals. It has also participated once in the Copa América, finishing in third place in 2001.
The national team made its debut in the Independence Centenary Games held in Guatemala City in September 1921, losing 9–0 to Guatemala.[3] The Honduras Men's National Team is the representative team in official men's football. They were created and played in a football tournament organized to celebrate Central American Independence the first international football match.
Prior to the qualification stages leading up to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador found themselves in what was called the Football War. This nickname was given to the situation after a play-off game was played between the two countries to decide which would qualify for the Finals. This political crisis eventually turned into a war that lasted approximately 100 hours.
Honduras had begun qualifying by defeating Costa Rica and Jamaica. Against Jamaica, they easily won both games, 5–1 on aggregate. They beat Costa Rica 1–0 in Tegucigalpa and drew 1–1 away. This set up a final match between Honduras and El Salvador, who had eliminated Guyana and the Netherlands Antilles.
In the first game against El Salvador, Honduras won 1–0 in Tegucigalpa on 8 June 1969. Honduras were coached by Carlos Padilla Velásquez and the only goal of the game was scored by Leonard Welch. Honduras lost the second game 3–0 in San Salvador, and a play-off was required in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City on 27 June. El Salvador won 3–2 to qualify and eliminate Honduras from the qualifications.
Since 1993, CONMEBOL has invited teams from other confederations to participate in their confederation championship, the Copa América. Honduras took part as one of the last-minute teams added for the 2001 tournament, as Argentina dropped out one day before the start. The team arrived only a few hours before the tournament's first game and with barely enough players. Despite the odds, Honduras progressed into the quarter-finals, where they defeated Brazil 2–0. In the semi-finals, Colombia knocked out Honduras 2–0.
Honduras advanced to the final round in the qualifying competition for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but again failed to qualify after losing at home to Trinidad & Tobago, and away against Mexico in their final two matches. The match against Trinidad, and Tobago saw Honduras hit the goal post eight times.[citation needed]
Honduras faced Chile, Spain, and Switzerland in their first-round group.[5] In their first match they lost to Chile 1–0, to a goal from Jean Beausejour. They then lost 2–0 to Spain, with both goals scored by David Villa. In their last match they drew 0–0 against Switzerland and were eliminated in last place in the group.
Players lining up during the national anthem prior to the qualifying match against Canada on June 12, 2012, at BMO Field
In the qualifying competition for the 2014 World Cup, Honduras were given a bye to the third round because of their third-place position among CONCACAF teams in the March 2011 FIFA World Rankings. They qualified for the final round by finishing first in their group, which included Panama, Canada and Cuba. After beginning with a home defeat against Panama, Honduras recovered and beat Canada 8–1 in their final match, allowing them to win the group ahead of Panama.
In the final round of qualifying, the Hexagonal, six teams faced each other in a home-and-away format. In their first two games, Honduras defeated the United States 2–1 and came back from a two-goal deficit to draw 2–2 with Mexico. They lost three of their next four matches before traveling to Mexico City to face Mexico in the Azteca. Honduras again trailed but scored twice in the second half for a stunning 2–1 win. They returned to Tegucigalpa, where they drew 2–2 against Panama, who escaped defeat with a last-minute goal by Roberto Chen. In the final two games, Honduras beat Costa Rica 1–0 at home and qualified with a 2–2 draw against Jamaica in Kingston.
In the Finals in Brazil, Honduras again finished bottom of their first-round group, after 3–0 defeats against France and Switzerland, and a 2–1 defeat to Ecuador. The match against France featured the first use of goal-line technology to award a goal at the World Cup: an own-goal by Honduras's goalkeeper, Noel Valladares. Against Ecuador, Carlo Costly scored Honduras's first goal in the Finals for 31 years.
In 2017, Honduras failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. In the Hexagonal stage, they had mixed run of results which included draws against Costa Rica and Panama. On the final matchday, however, Honduras defeated Mexico 3–2 in San Pedro Sula, and coupled with a 2–1 Panamanian victory against Costa Rica and a United States loss to Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras finished in the fourth position to advance to a play-off against Australia. Following a 0–0 draw at home, Honduras were eliminated in the second leg in Sydney with a 3–1 loss. This defeat resulted in the departure of head coach Jorge Luis Pinto, and would be the final involvement of national team veterans Mario Martínez, Johnny Palacios, Donis Escober, and Carlo Costly.
Heading into the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, Uruguayan manager Fabián Coito was appointed as the new head coach of Honduras. Drawn in Group C with expectations to advance to the next round, Honduras finished last in the group, following an opening loss to Jamaica and an upset defeat to Curaçao. Despite a 4–0 win over El Salvador in their final group stage match, Honduras finished last in the group. Heading into the tournament with a newer pool of players, this was the final involvement for veteran full-back duo Emilio Izaguirre and Brayan Beckeles.
In the summer of 2021, Honduras had a strong showing in the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League Finals, defeating rivals Costa Rica in a penalty-shootout in the third place play-off, having been eliminated by the United States 1–0 in the semi-finals. In the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup, Honduras would perform better in the group stage largely in part to the offensive contributions of forward duo Alberth Elis and Romell Quioto, but after the pair both suffered injuries in the group stage, Honduras was eliminated by Mexico 3–0 in the quarter-finals.
Heading into 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification in the new "Octagonal" format, Honduras was expected to contend in the qualification spots, however they did considerably worse, as for the first time ever in a World Cup qualification cycle, the team had failed to register a win, with just four draws and ten losses. Despite an initial draw against the eventual first-placed nation Canada, Honduras spiraled in form after suffering a 4–1 loss to the United States in San Pedro Sula, despite leading at half-time. After a string of poor results, head coach Coito was sacked and replaced by Hernán Darío Gómez. Despite the managerial change, the poor run of form would continue as Gómez would experiment with different players, leading to the inability to properly replace past veterans and develop a cohesive squad.
The team's poor showing in qualifying highlighted the main issues within Honduran football, with some pundits bringing attention to said issues, which included poor leadership and direction from FENAFUTH, poor technical staff, and a negligence from the federation towards player infrastructure. The lack of support for proper youth leagues and player development, as well as outdated and limited training facilities were key points in regards to the poor player infrastructure, which also contributed to the poor quality of the national league, leading to the stagnation in Honduran football.[7] After FENAFUTH released a statement in regards to the team's failure, former player and top all-time goalscorer for the national team Carlos Pavón criticized the federation, proclaiming, "Are you serious? How easy it is to be a leader in Honduras, to justify an eight-year failure in a communiqué. The ideal thing would be for the famous committee to show their faces at a press conference and explain what they wrote, wouldn't they?."[8]
INJ Player withdrew due to injury WD Player withdrew for personal reasons PRE Preliminary squad EXC Excluded from squad SUS Suspended RET Player retired from the national team
Official subregional competition organized by CCCF, direct predecessor confederation of CONCACAF and the former governing body of football in Central America and Caribbean (1938–1961).
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(19 January 2026) [2] 
Guatemala 9–0 Honduras 
