Wales World Cup Information

Wales are one of the oldest national teams in the world, but have not qualified for a major international tournament since 1958. Although part of the United Kingdom, Wales has always had its own representative side that plays in all the major professional tournaments, though not in the Olympic Games as the IOC only recognises the United Kingdom.

Wales were placed in Group 4 for qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup alongside Germany, Russia, Finland, Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein.

Wales Recent Football History

Wales came close, once again, to qualifying for a major championship when they came within a whisker of reaching the World Cup of 1994. Needing to win the final game of the group at home to Romania, Paul Bodin missed a penalty when the scores were level 1–1; Romania went on to win 2–1.

Following the failure to qualify, Terry Yorath's contract as manager of the national side was not renewed by the FAW and John Toshack, then manager of Real Sociedad, was appointed as a part-time manager. However, Toshack resigned after just one game — a 3–1 defeat to Norway — citing problems with the FAW as his reason for leaving, although he was sure to have been shocked at being booed off the pitch at Ninian Park by the Welsh fans still reeling from the dismissal of Yorath. Mike Smith took the reins for the start of the Euro 96 qualifiers, which saw Wales slip to embarrassing defeats against Moldova and Georgia before Bobby Gould was appointed in June 1995.

Gould's time in charge of Wales is seen as a dark period by Welsh football fans. His questionable tactics and public fallings-out with players such as Nathan Blake, Robbie Savage and Mark Hughes, coupled with embarrassing defeats to club side Leyton Orient and a 7–1 thrashing by the Netherlands in 1996 did not make him a popular figure within Wales. Gould finally resigned following a 4–0 defeat to Italy in 1999, and the FAW turned to two legends of the national team, Neville Southall and Mark Hughes to take temporary charge of the game against Denmark four days later, with Hughes later being appointed on a permanent basis.

Under Hughes, Wales came close to qualifying for the European Championships in 2004, losing in the play-offs for a place in Portugal against Russia. The defeat, however, was not without its controversy as Russian midfield player, Yegor Titov, tested positive for the use of a banned substance after the first qualifying leg. However, the sport's governing body decided to take no action against the Football Union of Russia other than instructing them not to play Titov again.

Following a disappointing start to the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign, Hughes left his role with the national team to take over as manager of Blackburn Rovers of the English Premier League. John Toshack was appointed manager for the second time on 12 November 2004.