The Laos national association football team (Lao: ທິມຊາດ ບານເຕະ ແຫ່ງຊາດ ລາວ;French: Équipe du Laos de football) represents Laos in international football and is governed by the Lao Football Federation. The team's nickname is the Million Elephants (Lao: ລ້ານຊ້າງ).
History
Laos established their national football association in 1951. The South-east Asian nation is still waiting to make its entrance into a major international competition. Laos have never qualified for the FIFA World Cup, AFC Asian Cup or Asian Games and as an international side, their appearances have been restricted to regional tournaments such as the Southeast Asian Games and the AFF Championship. After years of internal strife, Laos focused on economic and political recovery. With the country achieving political stability, football has made an impact on Laotians.[6][7]
Since making their appearance at the 1995 Southeast Asian Games, Laos has competed in the inaugural 1996 AFF Championship, drawing against Vietnam 1–1 and winning against Cambodia 1–0. Although they are new to the regional tournaments, Laos has displayed a fiery passion and talent. In 1995, they beat Brunei and Philippines and two years later in the 1997 Southeast Asian Games held in Jakarta, they also beat Malaysia 1–0 and Philippines 4–1. Domestic competitions are also active with over 60 clubs competing at various levels. Domestic football is amateur although most of the top teams are drawn from government ministries and public services. In the qualifying preliminary rounds for the 2004 Asian Cup, Laos beat Bangladesh 2–1. In the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, Laos qualified for the second round as a lucky loser after Guam and Nepal both withdrew from the competition, but proceeded to lose all its games (against Qatar, Iran and Jordan).[8] They also advanced to the second round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, after defeating Cambodia 8–6 on aggregate. In the second round, they lost to China 13–3 on aggregate. Laos has defeated their much more established counterparts such as Brunei, Cambodia, Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. Laos' first appearance in a continental tournament was in 2014, when they played at the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup.[9][10] In 2016, Laos were invited to the inaugural 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup held in Kuching being grouped with Macau, Sri Lanka and Mongolia. In the first match, Laos won Sri Lanka 2–0 before losing to Macau 1–4 but bounced back with another win against Mongolia 3–0 sending the team to the knockout stage. They would go on to face Nepal in the semi-finals and were 2–2 at the end of extra time but lost in the penalty shootout, thus bowing out from the cup.
Laos would then go on to play in the 2024 ASEAN Championship after playing just two friendlies match in 2024 against Malaysia and Thailand in November right before the tournament began. Despite the stagnant results in the tournament, Laos manage to scored against Vietnam for the first time in 26 years in a 4–1 defeat on 9 December. In the second fixtures on 12 December, Phousomboun Panyavong became the youngest Laotian player to score for Laos in the tournament and also Peter Phanthavong scored the equaliser for Laos which sealed a 3–3 draw against Indonesia being Laos first point in the tournament since the 2012 AFF Championship against the same opponent in a 2–2 draw. In the next match, Laos picked up another draw in a 1–1 results against Philippines.
INJ Withdrew from the squad due to injury PRE Included in the Preliminary squad or on standby RET Retired from the team SUS Serving suspension from the team WD Withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue
