Brittany national football team

Brittany plays unofficial internationals. Eligibility to play for the Breton team is strict, as the players (or their parents or grandparents) must have been born within the Breton territory. The BFA has a pool of around 100 players in the first three professional divisions to choose from, some of them with proven international football experience. Those who have played for the Betron side include the likes of Christian Gourcuff, Paul Le Guen, Yann Kermorgant. Brittany's Stéphane Guivarc'h won the 1998 World Cup with France.

Given their strong sense of cultural separatism from the rest of France, Brittany formed a Breton XI football team, that competed at various points throughout the 20th century, playing against the likes of Luxembourg and Norway. The Breton team made their debut at the Roazhon Park in Rennes in 1922, defeating Luxembourg 1-0.

The Breton Football Association (BFA) was formalized on 18 July 1997, and shortly after they brought together Breton professional footballers to form a representative football team of Brittany. Following the support from Fernand Sastre and Michel Platini (co-presidents of the French Organizing Committee for the 1998 World Cup), the Brittany team was set up with the aim to offer a warm-up game to the 1998 WC qualified national teams, and therefore, they played their first official game against Cameroon on 21 May 1998 (two weeks before the start of the tournament) at Roazhon Park in Rennes, and a Breton side featuring Paul Le Guen surprised, as they notably hold the Cameroonian to a 1-1 draw, thanks to an equalizing goal from Guingampais Rouxel just before the break. Six games had to be called off between 1999 and 2005 because of the then French FA administration, which contradicted its own rules. The head of the French FA administration changed and BFA finally recovered in order to fully resume its activities in 2008. Two years later, in 2010, Brittany participated in the 2010 Corsica Football Cup, where they were knocked out in the semi-finals by the hosts and eventual champions, Corsica, however, they managed to salvage same pride by defeating Togo in the third place match.^[2] Its latest game was played versus Mali (1–0) on 28 May 2013.

BFA offered other Celtic nations to join in a Celtic Nations Championship between 1985 and 1987. On 9 September 1985, BFA Secretary Fañch Gaume, visiting Cardiff on the eve of a World Cup qualifier between Wales and Scotland, sounded both the FA of Wales and the Scottish FA about participation to a Celtic Nations Cup. Informal conversations were followed up by correspondence and further personal exchanges, whenever the opportunity presented itself before international games.

While Wales showed a genuine interest, the offer finally fell on barren ground with Scotland. Rejection letters from the SFA for non-entry stated the difficulties to find suitable dates but, as the sports editor of "The Glasgow Herald" Jim Reynolds presented it: "It is just two years since England and Scotland broke up the British International Championship by calling a halt to regular games featuring Northern Ireland and Wales. So, the chances of a Celtic Championship involving Scotland must be remote."^[3]

Brittany recently renewed its claims to organise and take part in the new Celtic Nations Cup^[4] with the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales by 2015 at the earliest or 2017.

Date	Venue	Home Team	Away Team	Score
12 March 1922	Rennes	Brittany	Luxembourg	1–0
11 February 1923	Esch-sur-Alzette	Luxembourg	Brittany	1–4
1 November 1923	Rennes	Brittany	Norway	1–5
23 March 1924	Rennes	Brittany	Luxembourg	1–1
22 February 1925	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	Brittany	1–1
10 April 1938	Brest	Brittany	Germany XI	called off
23 April 1939	Brest	Brittany	Luxembourg	3–1
30 December 1988	Brest	Brittany	United States	6–2 (indoor)
21 May 1998	Rennes	Brittany	Cameroon	1–1
25 May 1999	Nantes	Brittany	Republic of Ireland	called off °
30 May 2000	Nantes	Brittany	Romania	called off °
20 March 2001	Angers	Brittany	Cuba	called off °
22 May 2001	Lorient	Brittany	Morocco	called off °
31 August 2001	Lorient	Brittany	Latvia	called off °
June 2003	-	Brittany	New Zealand	called off °
20 May 2008	Saint-Brieuc	Brittany	Congo	3–1
19 May 2010	Ajaccio	Corsica	Brittany	2–0
21 May 2010	Bastia	Brittany	Togo	2–1
2 June 2011	Saint-Nazaire	Brittany	Equatorial Guinea	0–1
28 May 2013	Nantes	Brittany	Mali	1–0
20 May 2014	Vannes	Brittany	Central African Republic	called off
22 May 2016	Lomé	Togo	Brittany	cancelled

° game agreed but not played because of then French FA administration (1999–2005).

• 1988: Jean-Louis Lamour and Marc Rastoll
• 1998: Georges Eo and René Le Lamer
• 2000/2008: Serge Le Dizet
• 2010: Philippe Bergeroo
• 2011: Michel Audrain
• 2014: Jacques Santini
• 2016: Raymond Domenech and Michel Audrain

To be included in the Breton squad, according to FIFA national teams rules, it is eligible a player: - born into one of five historical Breton departments. - with parents from Brittany. - with grandparents from Brittany - grown up in Brittany since the age of seven.

Opponents: Cm (Cameroon), Cg (Republic of Congo), Cs (Corsica), Gq (Equatorial Guinea), Oi (Nantes 'Ouest Indoor' Tournament), Tg (Togo), Us (USA).

Last-minute defections through injury or illness:

• 1998: Sylvain Ripoll, Ronan Salaün
• 2000: Claude Michel
• 2008: Mathieu Bouyer, Romain Danzé, Yoann Gourcuff, Fabien Lemoine
• 2010: Hassan Ahamada, Étienne Didot, Jérémy Menez, Fabien Robert
• 2011: Florent Besnard, Mathieu Bouyer

Breton footballers who represented FIFA national teams

• Players in bold have won the FIFA World Cup
• Players in underlined have won a continental championships

  Angola

  Argentina

  Cambodia

  Cameroon

  Comoros

  DR Congo

  Equatorial Guinea

  France

  Gabon

  Guadeloupe

  Guinea

  Haiti

  Hungary

  Ivory Coast

  Madagascar

  Mali

  Martinique

  Mauritius

  Morocco

  Niger

  Norway

  Senegal

  Spain

  Togo

  Tunisia

•  
  Brittany, captained by Paul Le Guen, in a match against Cameroon in 1998
•  
  Brittany in a match against Congo at Stade Fred Aubert, Saint-Brieuc, in 2008

• Official website of Football Association of Brittany