Yugoslavia national football team

A Yugoslavia line-up in the 1930 FIFA World Cup

In 1929, the country was renamed to Yugoslavia and the football association became Fudbalski Savez Jugoslavije and ordered to move its headquarters from Zagreb to Belgrade. The national team participated at the 1930 FIFA World Cup, finishing in fourth place. In its first ever World Cup match in Montevideo's Parque Central, Yugoslavia managed a famous 2–1 win versus mighty Brazil, with the following starting eleven representing the country: Milovan Jakšić, Branislav Sekulić, Aleksandar Tirnanić, Milutin Ivković, Ivica Bek, Momčilo Đokić, Blagoje Marjanović, Milorad Arsenijević, Đorđe Vujadinović, Dragoslav Mihajlović, and Ljubiša Stefanović. The team was the youngest squad at the inaugural World Cup at an average age of just under 22 years old, and became quite popular amongst the Uruguayan public, who dubbed them "Los Ichachos". The national team consisted of players based in Serbian football clubs, while the Zagreb Subassociation forbid players from Croatian clubs, some of whom were regulars in the national team until then, to play in the World Cup due to the relocation of football association's headquarters from Zagreb to Belgrade.[7]

Yugoslavia began their football campaign by defeating Luxembourg 6–1, with five different players scoring the goals. In the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, they would take out Turkey and Great Britain by the same score of 3–1. In the final though, they would lose to Sweden.

Having a team with many players from the 1948 generation, Yugoslavia was a formidable side at the 1952 Summer Olympics and finished as runners-up behind the famous "Golden Team" representing Hungary. Against the USSR, Yugoslavia was 5–1 up with 15 minutes of their first round match to go. The Yugoslavs, understandably, put their feet up. Arthur Ellis, the match referee, recorded what happened next in his book, The Final Whistle (London, 1963): "The USSR forced the most honourable draw ever recorded! [Vsevolod] Bobrov, their captain, scored a magnificent hat-trick. After the USSR had reduced the lead to 5–2, he, almost single-handed, took the score to 5–5, scoring his third in the last minute. For once, use of the word sensational was justified." Although Bobrov's early goal in their replay presaged a miraculous recovery, Yugoslavia recovered sufficiently to put out their opponents easily in the second half.

The federation and football overall was disrupted by World War II. After the war, a socialist federation was formed and the football federation reconstituted. It was one of the founding members of the UEFA and it organized the 1976 European Championship played in Belgrade and Zagreb. The national team participated in eight World Cups and four Euros, won the Olympic football tournament in 1960 at the Summer Games (they also finished second three times and third once), and developed a reputation for skillful and attacking football, leading them to be dubbed "the Brazilians of Europe".[8]

Dragan Džajić holds the record for the most national team caps at 85, between 1964 and 1979. The best scorer is Stjepan Bobek with 38 goals, between 1946 and 1956.

With the end of the Cold War, democratic principles were introduced to the country which brought about the end of Titoist rule. In the subsequent atmosphere, national tensions were heightened. At the Yugoslavia-Netherlands friendly in preparation for the 1990 World Cup, the Croatian crowd in Zagreb jeered the Yugoslav team and anthem and waved Dutch flags (owing to its resemblance to the Croatian tricolour). With the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the team split up and the remaining team of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) was banned from competing at Euro 92. The decision was made on 31 May 1992, just 10 days before the competition commenced.[9]

They had finished top of their qualifying group, but were unable to play in the competition due to United Nations Security Council Resolution 757. Their place was taken by Denmark, who went on to win the competition. Yugoslavia had also been drawn as second seed in Group 5 of the European Zone in the qualifying tournament for the 1994 World Cup. FRY was barred from competing, rendering the group unusually weak.

After the breakup of Yugoslavia, the FRY consisted of Montenegro and Serbia.[10][11] The national team of Serbia and Montenegro continued under the name Yugoslavia until 2003, when country and team were renamed Serbia and Montenegro. For the later official football teams, see:

• Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team (member of UEFA and FIFA since 1990s)
• Croatia national football team (member of UEFA and FIFA since 1990s)
• Slovenia national football team (member of UEFA and FIFA since 1990s)
• North Macedonia national football team (member of UEFA and FIFA since 1990s)
• Serbia and Montenegro national football team, (considered successor of Yugoslavia) later
  • Montenegro national football team (member of UEFA and FIFA since 2006)
  • Serbia national football team (considered successor of Serbia and Montenegro ,as Serbia since 2008)
    • Kosovo national football team (member of UEFA and FIFA since 2016)

Both FIFA and UEFA consider the Serbian national team to be the direct and sole successor of the Yugoslavia (Kingdom of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia and FR Yugoslavia) and Serbia and Montenegro national football teams. The teams of other republics were inducted as fully new members.

Nation	FIFA Active	International tournament(s)	Round
Croatia	(since 1992)
		UEFA Euro 1996	Quarter-Final
		1998 FIFA World Cup	Third Place
		2002 FIFA World Cup	Group Stage
		UEFA Euro 2004
		2006 FIFA World Cup
		UEFA Euro 2008	Quarter-Final
		UEFA Euro 2012	Group Stage
		2014 FIFA World Cup
		UEFA Euro 2016	Round of 16
		2018 FIFA World Cup	Runner-up
		UEFA Euro 2020	Qualified
Serbia FR Yugoslavia(1992–2003)  Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2006)	(since 2006)
		1998 FIFA World Cup (FR Yugoslavia)	Round of 16
		UEFA Euro 2000 (FR Yugoslavia)	Quarter-Final
		2006 FIFA World Cup (Serbia & Monetenegro)	Group Stage
		2010 FIFA World Cup
		2018 FIFA World Cup
Slovenia	(since 1992)
		UEFA Euro 2000	Group Stage
		2002 FIFA World Cup
		2010 FIFA World Cup
Bosnia and Herzegovina	(since 1995)	2014 FIFA World Cup	Group Stage
North Macedonia	(since 1991)
Montenegro	(since 2006)
Kosovo	(since 2016)

Additional stats:

• Croatia has/will appear at their 10th major tournament since independence, most by any other former republic;
• Croatia's runner-up finish at 2018 FIFA World Cup is the best result at a major tournament by any other former republic;
• Croatia was the first former Yugoslav nation to qualify to a major tournament after independence;
• Slovenia has only qualified for major tournaments via play-offs (3);
• Croatia were seeded inside Pot 1 of FIFA World Cup qualifications on 3 successive occasions, in 2010, 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, after FR Yugoslavia who were seeded once in 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification;
• Only three former Yugoslav republics were ever seeded inside Pot 1 in the history of UEFA European Championship qualifying competition, after FR Yugoslavia (UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying), Croatia (UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying) and Bosnia (Euro 2016 qualifying);
• No former SFR Yugoslav republic was ever seeded or in Pot 1 at finals of a major tournament;
• Niko Kranjčar played for Croatia at 2006 FIFA World Cup under his father – head coach Zlatko Kranjčar; likewise Tino-Sven Sušić played for Bosnia at 2014 FIFA World Cup under his uncle – head coach Safet Sušić.

     Champions       Runners-up       Third Place       Fourth Place  

FIFA World Cup record											Qualification Record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Squads		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1930	Third Place'[14][lower-alpha 3]	4th	3	2	0	1	7	7	Squad		Invited
1934	Did Not Qualify										2	0	1	1	3	4
1938											2	1	0	1	1	4
1950	Group Stage	5th	3	2	0	1	7	3	Squad		5	3	2	0	16	6
1954	Quarter-final	7th	3	1	1	1	2	3	Squad		4	4	0	0	4	0
1958	Quarter-final	5th	4	1	2	1	7	7	Squad		4	2	2	0	7	2
1962	Fourth Place	4th	6	3	0	3	10	7	Squad		4	3	1	0	11	4
1966	Did Not Qualify										6	3	1	2	10	8
1970											6	3	1	2	19	7
1974	2nd Group Stage	7th	6	1	2	3	12	7	Squad		5	3	2	0	8	4
1978	Did Not Qualify										4	1	0	3	6	8
1982	Group Stage	16th	3	1	1	1	2	2	Squad		8	6	1	1	22	7
1986	Did Not Qualify										8	3	2	3	7	8
1990	Quarter-final	5th	5	3	1	1	8	6	Squad		8	6	2	0	16	6
1994	Banned[lower-alpha 4]										Banned
Total	Fourth Place	8/15	33	14	7	12	55	42	–	66	38	15	13	130	68

     Champions       Runners-up       Third Place       Fourth Place  

UEFA European Championship record											Qualification Record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Squads		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1960	Runners-up	2nd	2	1	0	1	6	6	Squad		4	2	1	1	9	4
1964	Did Not Qualify										4	2	1	1	6	5
1968	Runners-up	2nd	3	1	1	1	2	3	Squad		6	4	1	1	14	5
1972	1/4 play offs										8	3	4	1	7	5
1976	Fourth Place	4th	2	0	0	2	4	7	Squad		8	6	1	1	15	5
1980	Did Not Qualify										6	4	0	2	14	6
1984	Group Stage	8th place	3	0	0	3	2	10	Squad		6	3	2	1	12	11
1988	Did Not Qualify										6	4	0	2	13	9
1992	Banned after qualification[16]										8	7	0	1	24	4
Total	Runners-up	4/9	10	2	1	7	14	26	–		56	35	10	11	114	54

*Denotes draws including knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

The following players scored ten or more goals for Yugoslavia.[17]