The Bahrain national football team was formed in 1957. The team joined FIFA in 1966 and the Oceania Football Confederation in 1969. Though they have been desperately close at times, the team has never qualified for a world cup.

In 1966, Bahrain played a debut series of matches. The team’s first international was a 4-4 draw with Kuwait. A few days later the Bahrain national football team suffered a defeat that remains their national record: 10-1 to Iraq.

The Bahrain national football team has entered almost all world cup competitions since 1978, the only exception being the 1990 world cup in Italy.

Recent world cups have been successful for Bahrain, twice coming within a single game of qualification. The 2006 world cup qualification saw Bahrain face Trinidad and Tobago in an inter-continental play-off to qualify for the world cup.  A 2-1 aggregate defeat saw Bahrain fail at the last hurdle.

The 2010 world cup qualification campaign was just as brutal. After a successful campaign, Bahrain again made the play-off stages. This time New Zealand were Bahrain’s opponents in the final play-off. A 0-0 draw at home was followed by a 1-0 loss away, and a second consecutive last-minute failure.