The Liechtenstein national football team (German: Liechtensteinische Fussballnationalmannschaft) is the national football team of the Principality of Liechtenstein and is controlled by the Liechtenstein Football Association. The organisation is known as the Liechtensteiner Fussballverband in German.
The team's first match was an unofficial match against Malta in Seoul, a 1–1 draw in 1981. Their first official match came two years later, a 0–1 defeat by Switzerland. Liechtenstein's largest win, a 4–0 win over Luxembourg in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier on 13 October 2004, was both its first away win and its first win in any FIFA World Cup qualifier.
Liechtenstein has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship.
Liechtenstein is the only country that has lost official matches against San Marino – once in a 2004 friendly, and twice in the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League. Liechtenstein suffered its biggest ever loss in 1996, during 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, losing 1–11 to Macedonia (now North Macedonia), the result also being Macedonia's largest ever win to date. The team's head coach is currently Konrad Fünfstück.
Contents
History
Liechtenstein are only a relatively recent affiliate to FIFA, and did not participate in any qualifying series until the UEFA Euro 1996 qualifiers. There they surprised the Republic of Ireland by holding them to a 0–0 draw on 3 June 1995. On 14 October 1998, they achieved their first victory in a qualifying campaign, by 2–1 against Azerbaijan in a UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying match.
Since then, the presence of Liechtenstein clubs in the Swiss league system and of a handful of professional players (most notably Mario Frick) has seen the side's competitiveness improve slightly. The Euro 2004 qualifiers saw Liechtenstein improve to the extent they restricted England to 2–0 wins. Also at this time Liechtenstein lost 1–0 against San Marino, considered to be the weakest national team. The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers brought even better results as two wins over Luxembourg and draws against both Slovakia and Portugal meant that Liechtenstein finished with 8 points.
In the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifiers, Liechtenstein beat Latvia with a solitary goal from Mario Frick. The result caused the Latvian manager to resign after the match. They repeated their success against Iceland, beating them 3–0 on 17 October 2007 for their second qualifying group win. On 26 March 2008 Liechtenstein had an embarrassing 7–1 loss to another small nation in Europe, Malta. This was recorded as Malta's largest win.
The Liechtensteiner Fussballverbund voted Rainer Hasler to be their "Golden Player" — their best player over the last 50 years — to mark UEFA's golden jubilee.
From 2010 World Cup qualifiers
In the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Liechtenstein secured a scoreless draw against Azerbaijan and a 1–1 draw against Finland, finishing bottom of Group 4 on two points.
In the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifiers, Liechtenstein were narrowly beaten 2–1 by Scotland in Hampden Park thanks to a goal by Stephen McManus in the seventh minute of additional time. They produced a shock 2–0 win at home against Lithuania; their goals were scored by Philippe Erne and Michele Polverino. In the following qualifying game, they managed a scoreless draw away to Lithuania.
In the qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Blue-Reds were humiliated at home in their opening game against Bosnia-Herzegovina (1–8). The team lost many of its qualifying matches and earned its only two points in draws against Latvia and Slovakia. The team finished bottom of its group.
In the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying campaign in France, Liechtenstein finished second-bottom of the group and took five points, with a goalless draw at home against Montenegro, an away win against Moldova, one goal to nil, thanks to Franz Burgmeier's ninth goal, and then a 1–1 home draw in the return against the same Moldovans, the group's red lanterns with three fewer units.
In the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, The Blue-Reds lost all 10 of their matches and finished bottom of their group with no points scored and just one goal scored (away against Israel) compared to 39 conceded.
In 2018, Liechtenstein entered the first UEFA Nations League, in group 4 of league D. Their first Nations League match saw Armenia beat them 2–1 away. Liechtenstein were able to claim their first Nations League victory, beating Gibraltar 2–0 at home. Liechtenstein finished bottom of their group with just one win and a draw, also at home, against Armenia (2–2).
From Euro 2020 qualifiers
During the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers, Liechtenstein managed to pick up two points thanks to two draws, one away to Greece (1–1) and the other at home to Armenia (1–1), but finished bottom of their group with 2 goals scored and 31 conceded.
In the 2020–21 edition of the Nations League, Liechtenstein failed to gain promotion to League C, with a single win (2–0 at San Marino), two draws (0–0 at home to San Marino and 1–1 at Gibraltar) and one defeat (0–1 at home to Gibraltar, their direct rival who eventually gained promotion). The Blue-Reds disappointed by failing to win a single match at home, once again falling behind Gibraltar in the standings as they had done in the previous edition, and being dominated overall in the goalless draw with San Marino.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers once again saw Liechtenstein finish bottom of their group, with just one point from a 1–1 draw away to Armenia, and 9 defeats, with 2 goals scored and 34 conceded.
The 2022–23 edition of the UEFA Nations League was also a disappointment for Liechtenstein, who finished bottom of their group with 6 defeats in as many games played and just one goal scored, away against Andorra (1–2), their worst record in this competition in 3 editions.
Liechtenstein began 2024 with four friendly matches, losing two and drawing two. One of the draws came away from home against Romania a few days prior to UEFA Euro 2024, a tournament which Romania had qualified for undefeated.
Liechtenstein began their 2024–25 UEFA Nations League campaign with a 0–1 loss away to San Marino after a Liechtenstein goal was denied through offside, handing the Sammarinese their first competitive victory. Following this, Liechtenstein proceeded to draw Gibraltar twice (2–2 away and 0–0 at home with a decisive penalty missed in the stoppage time during the return match against Gibraltar) before losing to San Marino again, this time 1–3 in Vaduz, finishing bottom of Group D1 on 2 points. Between the two draws with Gibraltar, Liechtenstein ended a 41-game winless streak with a 1–0 victory over Hong Kong.
Liechtenstein then went on a 12-match losing streak spanning from the end of 2025 throughout 2025. On 26 March 2026, at the 2026 FIFA Series, Liechtenstein ended the streak with a 1–0 upset victory against Tanzania, who were ranked 110th in the FIFA Rankings, 95 places higher than Liechtenstein.
Team image
Stadium
Liechtenstein play their home games at the Rheinpark Stadion in Vaduz.
Results and fixtures
The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.
Win
Draw
Loss
Fixture
Players
Current squad
The following players were called up for the 2026–27 UEFA Nations League matches against Azerbaijan and Lithuania on 13 and 16 November 2026.
Caps and goals are current as of 5 October 2026, after the match against Gibraltar.
Recent call-ups
The following players were called up in the last 12 months and are still eligible to represent.
Player records
As of 5 October 2026
Players in bold are still active with Liechtenstein.
Liechtenstein records and statistics
Liechtenstein player sent off: (18 times)
Patrik Hefti, v Austria, 2 June 1998 (8th minute)
Thomas Beck, v Romania, 9 October 1999 (53rd minute)
Matthias Beck and Frédéric Gigon, v Luxembourg, 17 April 2002
Manuel Ritter, v Estonia, 18 August 2004 (24th minute)
Andreas Gerster, v Estonia, 18 August 2004 (90th minute)
Martin Büchel, v Finland, 9 September 2009 (75th minute)
Daniel Kaufmann, v Latvia, 16 October 2012 (60th minute)
Philippe Erne, v Azerbaijan, 6 February 2013 (74th minute)
David Hasler, v Greece national football team, 6 September 2013 (66th minute)
Daniel Kaufmann, v Russia, 8 September 2015 (40th minute)
Ivan Quintans, v Qatar, 14 December 2017 (79th minute)
Michele Polverino, v Armenia, 6 September 2018 (74th minute)
Sandro Wieser, v North Macedonia, 16 November 2018 (50th minute)
Daniel Kaufmann, v Italy, 26 March 2019 (45th minute)
Martin Marxer, v Iceland, 11 October 2021 (63rd minute)
Competitive record
FIFA World Cup
*Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.
UEFA European Championship
*Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.
Head-to-head record
As of 5 October 2026
In literature
Prompted by the team's poor record in competitive games, British writer Charlie Connelly followed the entire qualifying campaign for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. As recorded in the subsequent book Stamping Grounds: Liechtenstein's Quest for the World Cup, Liechtenstein lost all eight games without scoring a goal.