Women’s football has grown fast in many places. More countries now have national teams. They hold contests and give girls a chance to play. But this growth has not reached every country.
Some nations still have no senior women’s team that plays the full eleven-a-side game. In others, girls play at home, but there is no full national team yet.
Here are nine countries without a women’s national football team or still building one.
1) Brunei Darussalam
Brunei is a FIFA member, but it has no women’s national football team. It has no women’s football program either.
Brunei joined FIFA in 1972. Its men’s team plays abroad. Its women have no senior side. The biggest clue comes from sport as a whole. In 2011, the International Olympic Committee said Brunei was one of just three countries that had never sent a woman to the Olympic Games. Reports also link the missing team to strict religious rules for women in sport.
Still, the Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (FABD) is taking steps. It runs grassroots festivals, youth clinics and referee training. In June 2023, two former US women’s stars, Lorrie Fair and Amy Griffin, visited to help. They came through the US Sports Envoy Programme.
In April 2026, the FABD held its first referee course just for women. A FIFA-backed coaching course ran alongside it. These steps build a base for the women’s game. But Brunei still has no active senior women’s team.
A team like that needs coaches, a league, and steady money. None of these is in place yet.
2) Oman
Oman stays among the countries without a women’s national football team. It has made progress, but it has no active senior team that plays eleven-a-side.
In May 2022, the Oman Football Association (OFA) launched a women’s team with a big show. Some local news called it the first women’s football team. But it was a futsal team. Futsal is a fast indoor game with five players on each side.
The team played in the 2022 WAFF Women’s Futsal Championship in Saudi Arabia. It lost both group games.
Since then, Oman has kept building. In September 2026, the OFA began its 2026/27 Women’s Futsal League with nine clubs. It also runs contests for girls aged 11 to 16 to spot young talent. These steps show the women’s game is growing in Oman.
3) Yemen
Yemen’s story is the saddest one on the list. A women’s team was set up around 2006. It had about 160 registered players. It still existed in 2009. Yet it has never played a match that FIFA counts.
Then came years of war and unrest. Think about what a team needs. It needs safe pitches, kit, coaches, and a calm football office. In a war, schools and sport are among the first things to suffer.
Social and cultural barriers also keep many girls away from sport. So Yemen has plenty of football fans, but no active senior women’s team.
4) Monaco
Monaco is different from most countries without a women’s national football team on this list. Women play football there. The country has a long history of women’s club football. But it has no women’s team for official FIFA or UEFA contests.
The main reason is simple. Monaco’s football federation is not a member of FIFA or UEFA. Without that, it cannot enter events like the FIFA Women’s World Cup or the UEFA Women’s European Championship.
Monaco is small. About 39,000 people live there. But size is not the main block. The bigger barrier is being outside FIFA and UEFA.
Women’s football keeps growing at home. AS Monaco Football Féminine began in 1976. In June 2025, former player Marco Simone launched Monaco United, a new club built around women’s football. It played in the French league system. It won promotion to the regional level after the 2025/26 season.
So women in Monaco can play club football. What they lack is a path from their own federation into official FIFA and UEFA play.
5) Nauru
Nauru is one of the countries without a senior women’s national football team. It has been called the Republic of Naoero since June 2026. It is a tiny Pacific island with about 12,000 people. It is the world’s third smallest country by land.
Football faces many limits there. A 2020 report said Linkbelt Oval was the only proper pitch on the island. It had a gravel surface. A July 2026 BBC report said the playing surface was hard sand.
Nauru is not a member of FIFA or the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). It also has no regular local league. It lacks the pitches a strong national program needs.
The Nauru Soccer Federation was relaunched in 2023 under the Nauru Olympic Committee. Its goal was to bring football to more people. It also wanted to train young players and, one day, form the first national team.
Later, it dropped the rush to set up a one-off international match. It chose to build a football culture from the ground up. Its plans include giving footballs to children. It will also work with schools and train local players and coaches.
For girls in Naoero, this means the base is still being built. There is interest in chances for both boys and girls. But there is no senior women’s team yet.
6) Federated States of Micronesia
The Federated States of Micronesia sits among the countries without a women’s national football team.
The country has four states: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae. They are spread across a huge part of the Pacific. About 110,000 people live there. Distance is the big barrier.
For years, clubs from different states could not play each other. The trips were too far and cost too much.
That began to change in 2023. The four states met for the first Micronesian Futsal Cup. The country’s football association was restarted that July.
It is still not a FIFA member. Past attempts to win FIFA’s attention have failed. Girls do play, but there is no senior eleven-a-side women’s team yet.
7) Palau
Palau is another small Pacific country with no senior women’s national football team. It is not a member of FIFA or the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). That limits its chances to enter official contests. It also cuts off football help from these groups.
Football has faced trouble there for years. Even the men’s team played no international matches from 1998 until 2014. That long gap shows how hard it is to keep football going in Palau.
Women’s football is at an early stage. Girls and women can join community football. But there is no senior eleven-a-side team to play for the country abroad.
For young players, the biggest need is better local chances. That means regular contests and a clear path from grassroots football to the senior level.
8) Tuvalu
Tuvalu is an unusual case among countries without a women’s national football team. It has a women’s squad and a local women’s league. But its senior team has never played an international match.
The Tuvalu Islands Football Association formed the women’s team in 2012. It hoped this would help football grow and support its bid to join FIFA. It hoped the team would play abroad in 2013 or 2014. That never happened.
Women’s football also has a local contest. The Women’s A Division began in 2009. It gives female players a chance to play for local clubs.
But Tuvalu is not a FIFA member. It is an associate member of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). That gives it some regional standing. But it cannot enter FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifying.
9) Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands is the last country in the world without a women’s national football team. Its football body, the Marshall Islands Soccer Federation, began in 2021. Its aim was to build the sport from the ground up.
The women’s program began with futsal. The first training camp was in March 2024. Just six players came. The program grew. In February 2026, the federation held its third yearly women’s camp in Northwest Arkansas.
But the team has struggled to find opponents for its first matches. Futsal gets little attention in the United States. That makes games hard to set up. The federation aimed for a first international match in autumn 2026 or spring 2027.
For now, the women’s program stays focused on futsal. An eleven-a-side women’s team is a goal for the future.
Now for the good news. Two countries almost stayed on this list of countries without a women’s national football team. Both changed in 2026.
10) San Marino
San Marino’s problem was numbers. The country is so small that, UEFA says, it could not find enough players for a senior women’s side.
So its football federation, the FSGC, built from the bottom up for about ten years. It started with academy teams. Then it added national youth teams. One was an experimental Under-16 side that began in 2023. Another was an Under-19 side that entered UEFA qualifiers.
On 13 April 2026, it unveiled its first senior women’s team at the San Marino Stadium. Former Italy international Giulia Domenichetti is the head coach. The first games are close.
San Marino play friendlies against Liechtenstein and Gibraltar at the end of November and the start of December 2026. Then they make their UEFA Women’s Nations League debut early next year.
Two jobs remain. San Marino needs better facilities and a women’s league at home. The federation itself says a national team needs both. Still, San Marino has left the list of countries without a women’s national football team.
11) Afghanistan
Afghanistan has come off the list of countries without a women’s national football team, even though its players live all around the world. Its story is the hardest of all.
Before August 2021, the country had a women’s national team. Then the Taliban took over the government. The Taliban banned women’s sports. The football federation, now under Taliban control, stopped backing the team.
Many players fled to places like Australia. This is called living in exile. One of them is Fatima Yousufi. Here was the real wall. FIFA’s rules in effect required the home federation’s approval. So the players could not play for their own country.
In May 2025, FIFA backed a team called Afghan Women United. That year, it beat Libya in Morocco.
On 29 April 2026, FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation changed the rule. Now the team can play official matches without Taliban approval. In June, a squad of 23 played the Cook Islands in Auckland, New Zealand. They lost 1- 0 and 3- 0.
FIFA says it will provide staff, coaching, and money to help them.
Final Whistle
The issue behind countries without women’s national football teams is not a lack of talent or passion. It is a lack of chances, support, and setups needed to help female players reach the world stage.
A national team takes more than finding eleven players. It needs money, good facilities, local contests, trained coaches, and help from football bodies.
For many women and girls, the chance to play for their country is still out of reach.
Every girl who dreams of wearing her country’s colours deserves a fair chance to make it happen.
