Wales v Australia

australia

Australia have qualified for six FIFA World Cup finals since their first appearance in West Germany in 1974.

Following their unsuccessful attempts to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Australia and New Zealand founded the Oceania Football Confederation along with Fiji and Papua New Guinea in 1966.

Australia is the only national team to have been a champion of two confederations, having won the OFC Nations Cup four times between 1980 and 2004 and, after joining the AFC in 2006, won the AFC Asian Cup in 2015

History

The Commonwealth Football Association was formed in 1911 but was superseded by the Australian Soccer Football Association, which was formed in 1921 becoming members of FIFA in 1956, however in 1960, the association disbanded after being suspended from FIFA for the poaching of players from overseas.

In 1961 the Australian Soccer Federation was formed and admitted to FIFA in 1963. In 1995, the Australian Soccer Federation formally changed its name to Soccer Australia.

Australia's first official international game was a 3-1 defeat in a friendly match away to New Zealand in June 1922.

Wales' only meeting with Australia was a friendly defeat in 2011.


Wales record v Australia

Head to Head

 PWDLFA
Home100112
ALL100112

no.datescorescorers (wales)venue 
58710/08/2011Wales 1-2 AustraliaBlakeCardiff City Stadium, CardiffFr


Australia Honours

AFC Asian Cup winners (1): 2015

AFC Asian Cup runners-up (1): 2011

OFC Nations Cup winners (4): 1980, 1996, 2000, 2004

OFC Nations Cup runners-up (2): 1998, 2002


Welsh players to have made their debut against Australia

No Welsh players have made their debut against Australia


Wales' opponents from Asian Football Confederation

Wales have faced eight countries from the current Asian Football Confederation.

Israel joined the AFC in 1954 and as such were an AFC member when they played against Wales in a 1958 FIFA World Cup play-off. However, at the Asian Games held in Iran in 1974, some Muslim and Arab countries refused to play against Israel in the football tournament. At the AFC Congress held during the games, Kuwait proposed Israel be excluded from all AFC competitions; a motion adopted by a vote of 17 to 13 with 6 abstentions.

Kuwait were Wales' next opponents from the AFC, with back to back matches played at The Racecourse, Wrexham and the Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium, Kuwait City in 1977. Goalkeeper, Dai Davies, was unable to play in the return leg in Kuwait having been denied entry for having an Israeli stamp in his passport.

Iran, drawn in Scotland's group for the 1978 World Cup Finals in Argentina, invited Wales to Tehran as part of their tournament preparations.

With the end of the British Home Championships, the Football Association of Wales accepted lucrative offers to play Saudi Arabia in 1986 and to take part in Japan's Kirin Cup in 1992.

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