The South Yemen national football team (), recognised as Yemen DPR by FIFA, represented South Yemen in men's international football, playing as one of two Yemeni teams, along with North Yemen.

After Yemeni unification in 1990, the PDR Yemen Football Federation, and with it the South Yemeni team, joined the Yemen Football Association (YFA) and the North Yemen national football team.

History Aden (1965)

The first international tournament in South Yemen was the Football at the 1965 Pan Arab Games, which at the time was the State of Aden in the Federation of South Arabia. The tournament was hosted in United Arab Republic where it was eliminated on the group stage, losing 1–0 to Palestine, 14–0 to United Arab Republic being his biggest defeat, 6–0 to Iraq and 4–3 to Lebanon.

South Yemen (1967–1990) The first participation of the newly independent, South Yemen was in the 1972 Palestine Cup of Nations, where in their group, they lost 0–1 against Syria, beat Palestine and Qatar, both 2–1, and in the last round, they lost against Algeria by 1–4.

South Yemen has only played in the AFC Asian Cup since the 1976 edition, qualifying automatically, due to the other teams having given up playing in the knockout tournament, with the final tournament being held in Iran. They were placed in Group B with the hosts Iran and Iraq. South Yemen lost to Iraq 0–1 and then Iran 0–8 in the group stage.

South Yemen competed in qualification for the only time for the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. They were placed in Group 4 of Zone A in the first round against Iran and Bahrain. Iran was disqualified before the games were played, due to refusal to move their games to neutral grounds away from the Iran–Iraq War. South Yemen hosted Bahrain on 12 March 1985 and lost 4–1 in Mortayer Yard (now 22 May Stadium), Aden. On 12 April they drew, 3–3, at the Bahrain National Stadium in Manama after leading 3–1. This saw Bahrain advance through.

Team211074+33201147−31Disqualified  ——3–3 ——— 1–4——

After that campaign, they would play again three later against Djibouti in a friendly, months later, they played for the 1988 AFC Asian Cup qualification losing 0–1 to Indonesia, drawing 1–1 against South Korea, and in the end losing 0–2 to Bahrain, being at the bottom of the group.

The last time The South Falcons took to the field was at the 1989 Peace and Friendship Cup tournament held in Kuwait, where in their group, they lost 0–2 to the Iran, also lost to Iraq but 2–6, and in the last one played by South Yemen, they won 1–0 against Guinea.

With the Yemeni unification in May 1990, the South Yemen team was dissolved, and its players migrated to the newly created Yemen, but it was the North Yemen which was considered the legitimate predecessor of the now Yemeni team.

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup record

FIFA World Cup Qualification recordYearResultPosition as 1930Part of Part of 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 as 1970Did not enterDid not enter 1974 1978 1982 1986 Did not qualify 201147 1990 Withdrew WithdrewTotal–0/6000000201147

AFC Asian Cup record

AFC Asian Cup recordQualification recordYearResultPositionSquad* as 1956Not member of AFCNot member of AFC 1960 1964 as 1968Not member of AFCNot member of AFC 1972Did not enter Did not enter 1976 Group stage6th200209SquadQualified by default 1980Withdrew Withdrew 1984 1988Did not qualify 301214 TotalGroup stage1/9200209—301214

Asian Games

Asian Games recordYearResultPosition* 1951– 1978 Did not participate 1982Group stage15th300318 1986Did not participateTotalGroup stage1/10300318

Pan Arab Games Pan Arab Games recordYearResultPosition* 1953Did not enter 1957 1961 1965Group stage9th4004325 1976Fourth place4th631278 1985Did not enterTotal Fourth place 2/6103161033

Palestine Cup of Nations

Palestine Cup of Nations recordYearResultPosition* 1972Group stage5th420257 19739th4013127 1975Did not enterTotalGroup stage2/38215634

Coaches No.NamePeriod1 Nasr Al-Shazly19722 Ali Mohsen Al-Moraisi1975–19763 Abbas Ghulam19824 Timur Segizbaev1982–19855 Azzam Khalifa?–March 19856 Abdullah Saleh KhobaniApril 1985–?7 Awad Awadan1986–?8 Abbas Ghulam19889 Mubarak Qadhi1989

Results and head-to-head records

Results Review +NationConfederationWin % AFC (Asia)44953026.92%41142–101

Head to head records Key

The list shown below shows the South Yemen national football team all-time international record against opposing nations.

+ Opponent2002219–173003817–9301249–5100114–32002019–191010110110010+1100101–13003012–126105418–14100113–22101440100115–4100134–11001010–10110020+2100104–43111220110021+1220020+2201114–3100011–1310234–11010000Totals44953041142–101

Player records

+Top goalscorersRankNameGoalsCapsRatioCareer1Mohammed Hussein3219892Abubakar Ibrahim Al-Mass2121975–19883Adnan Ahmed Al-Sabou1––1982–1985Jamil Saif––1973–1976Saleem Ahmed Mehdi31982Kassim Tariq Abdullah––1985–1988Maher Hassan Saleh31988Wagdan Mahmoud Shadli––1985–1989

References