The Venezuela national football team is the national football team of Venezuela and is controlled by the Federación Venezolana de Fútbol. It is nicknamed La Vinotinto (The Burgundy), because of the traditional burgundy color of their shirts.
When playing at home in official games they usually rotate between three stadiums: the Polideportivo Cachamay, in Puerto Ordaz; the Estadio José Antonio Anzoátegui, in Puerto La Cruz; and Estadio Pueblo Nuevo, in San Cristóbal. In friendly matches they tend to rotate between the rest of the stadiums in the country.
The Unofficial Football World Championships, and the related Nasazzi's baton title, was briefly held by Venezuela in 2006.
Unlike other South American nations, and akin to Caribbean nations, baseball is extremely popular in Venezuela, which diverts athletic talent away from football, contributing to its historic lack of success in CONMEBOL competitions. As of 2010, they are the only CONMEBOL side to have not qualified for the FIFA World Cup. Often Venezuela would go through entire qualification tournaments without recording a single win, although this has changed in the last two qualifying rounds. Until 2011, their best finish in Copa América was fifth in their first entry, in 1967. It is only recently with the spread of the World Cup's popularity in nations where football was not the primary sport (Japan, the United States, Australia, etc.) that the national team found incentives to increase player development and fan support.
Read more about Venezuela National Football Team: Copa America History, Historical Kits
Famous quotes containing the words football team, national, football and/or team:
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—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)
“Perhaps our national ambition to standardize ourselves has behind it the notion that democracy means standardization. But standardization is the surest way to destroy the initiative, to benumb the creative impulse above all else essential to the vitality and growth of democratic ideals.”
—Ida M. Tarbell (1857–1944)
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)
“giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle,
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.””
—Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863)