Mauritius national football team

The Mauritius national football team (Équipe de Maurice de football), nicknamed Club M and Les Dodos (The Dodos), is the national team of Mauritius. They are overseen by the Mauritius Football Association, which is a member of FIFA, the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA). The head coach is Guillaume Moullec.

Their most significant achievements are qualification for the 1974 African Cup of Nations, and winning the Indian Ocean Island Games football tournament in 1985 and 2003. They have also been a finalist in this competition in 1990, 2011 and 2019.

Early years
Mauritius played its first competitive international game in 1947 against Réunion, which they won 2–1. For the next twenty years, they would only play Réunion and Madagascar (probably due to the proximity of the three islands to each other) in friendlies and the Indian Ocean Games Triangulaire, which existed from 1947 to 1963. Mauritius won the competition ten times over that time period, were runners-up twice, and came in third once.

1960s–1990s
Starting in 1967, Mauritius began competing against other countries, playing friendlies and entering in such competitions as the Africa Cup of Nations and the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, though they haven't found much success. While they have never qualified for the World Cup finals, they have qualified once for the Africa Cup of Nations, in 1974, however, they were eliminated in the group stages. Mauritius did manage to win the resurrected Indian Ocean Games in 1985. In 1999, after deadly riots caused by supporters of Scouts Club (renamed as Port Louis Sporting Club ) angry about a controversial penalty awarded to Fire Brigade Sports Club (now renamed as Pamplemousses SC ) in the championship deciding game, which gave Fire Brigade a 1–0 win, all domestic football was suspended for 18 months, and only the national team was allowed to play. This is regarded as the point at which Mauritian football, both on the domestic and international stage, started on a downward slope.

2000s–present
Throughout the new millennium, the national team's performances progressively declined. From a high of the 116th place in the FIFA rankings in 2000, they tumbled down to an all-time low of the 195th place in the summer of 2011.

A peak was reached in 2003, when Mauritius convincingly won the 2003 Indian Ocean Island Games, on home soil, under head coach Akbar Patel. They followed up with a 3-1 home win over Uganda in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Qualification (CAF) first round in November 2003, although Uganda progressed on aggregate. Mauritius then reached the quarterfinals of the 2004 COSAFA Cup, beating South Africa 2–0 in January 2004. Mauritius eventually lost out 3–1 to the tournament's favorites Zambia. In the next few years, the team would go through a slump in performance, suffering their biggest defeats in the process and recording few official wins. Mauritius have also cycled through many head coaches, especially since the new millennium, but none have had true success.

During the 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifiers, Les Dodos achieved their best results in a decade, defeating both Mozambique and Rwanda. However, they were unable to build on these wins, losing to Comoros and then São Tomé and Príncipe in the preliminary round of the next two editions. In the 2023 AFCoN qualifiers, Mauritius faced São Tomé again in the preliminary round and lost 1–0 in the first leg and drew 3–3 at home, failing to progress. Following the result, CAF ruled that one of the São Tomé players was not eligible, awarding Mauritius a 3–0 victory and sending them into the group stages for the first time since 2017. However, this decision was reversed, following an appeal by São Tomé.

In 2023, Mauritius recorded impressive wins vs Kenya (1-0), who were in the FIFA rankings' top 100, and Angola (1-0; 0-0). However, in the 2025 AFCoN qualifiers, Mauritius lost to Chad in the preliminary round, marking four consecutive unsuccessful attempts to reach the group stage of the qualification round.

Media coverage
For most home games of significant importance, the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation provides televised coverage.

Supporters' groups
On 30 May 2011, the official fan club of Club M, Kop Moris, was launched. it was a massive moment for the entire country of Mauritius. The objective of this club is to build up excitement for Mauritius' games, fill up the stands as much as possible, and create a festive and family-friendly atmosphere. This fan club is officially sanctioned by the MFA.

Stadium
Mauritius now plays the majority of its games at the modern Complexe Sportif de Côte d'Or (cap. 7,000). Matches were previously hosted at Stade Anjalay (cap. 18,000) for high-profile matches, and Stade George V (cap. 6,200).

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.

Managerial history

 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Harry Brophy (1957–59)
 * Joseph Le Roy (1959–63)
 * Danny McLennan (1963–64)
 * Mohammad Anwar Elahee (1970–88)
 * 🇩🇪 Helmut Kosmehl (1976–88)
 * 🇩🇪 Rudi Gutendorf (1993)
 * Mohammad Anwar Elahee (1994–96)
 * Akbar Patel (1996-97)
 * 🇩🇪 Rudi Gutendorf (1997)
 * Ashok Chundunsing (1998)
 * Rajen Dorasami & France L'Aiguille (1998–02)
 * 🇫🇷 Patrick Parizon (2002–03)
 * Akbar Patel & Saoud Lallmahomed (2003)
 * Elvis Antoine & Rajesh Gunesh (2003–05)
 * Sarjoo Gowreesunkur (2006)
 * Rajen Dorasami & France L'Aiguille (2006)
 * Akbar Patel (2007)
 * Ashok Chundunsing (2007–08)
 * Benjamin Théodore (2008–09)
 * Akbar Patel (2009–14)
 * 🇫🇷 Didier Six (2015)
 * 🇫🇷 Alain Happe (2015–16)
 * 🇧🇪 Joe Tshupula (2016–17)
 * 🇧🇷 Francisco Filho (2017–18)
 * Akbar Patel (2018–19)
 * Boualem Mankour (2020–2021)
 * Tony François (2021–2023)
 * Fidy Rasoanaivo (2023–2024)
 * 🇫🇷 Guillaume Moullec (2024–present)

Current squad
The following players were selected for the 2023 COSAFA Cup.

Caps and goals as of 12 July 2023, after the game against Mozambique.

Recent call ups
The following players have also been called up to the Mauritius squad within the last twelve months.

Player records

 * Players in bold are still active with Mauritius.

COSAFA Senior Challenge Cup

 * 1997 to 1999 – Did not enter
 * 2000 – First round knockout
 * 2001 – Quarter-finals
 * 2002 to 2003 – First round knockout
 * 2004 – Quarter-finals
 * 2005 – Group A final
 * 2006 – Group A 3rd place
 * 2007 – Group B final
 * 2008 – Group A 4th place
 * 2009 – Group A 3rd place
 * 2010 – Cancelled
 * 2013 – Group A 2nd place
 * 2015 – Group A 3rd place
 * 2016 – Group B 3rd place
 * 2017 – Group A 3rd place
 * 2018 – Group B 3rd place

Head-to-head record
after the match vs. 🇸🇿 swaziland

Honours

 * Indian Ocean Games Triangulaire
 * Champions (10): 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957
 * Indian Ocean Games
 * Champions (2): 1985, 2003