The Laos national football team (; ) is the men's national football team that represents the Lao People's Democratic Republic. It is affiliated with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF). History Laos established their national football association in 1951. The South East Asian nation is still waiting to make its entrance into a major international competition. Laos have never qualified for the World Cup, Asian Cup or Asian Games and as an international side, their appearances have been restricted to regional tournaments such as the Southeast Asian Games and the AFF Suzuki Cup. After years of internal strife, Laos focused on economic and political recovery. With the country achieving political stability, football has made an impact on Laotians. Since making their appearance at the 1995 Southeast Asian Games, Laos has competed in the ASEAN Football Championship (formerly known as the Tiger Cup). Although new to the regional tournaments, Laos has displayed passion and talent. In 1995, they beat Brunei and the Philippines and two years later in the Jakarta SEA Games, they also beat Malaysia. Domestic competitions are also active with over 60 clubs competing at various levels. Domestic football is amateur although most of the top teams are drawn from government ministries and public services. In the qualifying preliminary rounds for the 2004 Asian Cup, they beat Bangladesh 2–1. In the Asian zone qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup, they qualified for the second round as a lucky loser after Guam and Nepal both withdrew from the competition, but proceeded to lose all its games (with Qatar, Iran and Jordan). They also advanced to the second round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, after defeating Cambodia 8–6 on aggregate. In the second round, they lost to China 13–3 on aggregate. Laos has defeated their much more established counterparts such as Brunei, Cambodia, Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. Laos' first appearance in a continental tournament was in 2014, when they played at the 2014 Challenge Cup. In 2017, the AFC announced it had been investigating the Laos national team, as well as football club Lao Toyota FC, since 2014 on suspicions of match fixing. As a result, many players and officials were banned for life, 15 of which were banned all at once. The players receiving the bans included star players Khampheng Sayavutthi and Maitee Hatsady, goalkeeper Vathana Keodouangdeth and former captain