The Netherlands national football team (DutchHet Nederlands Elftal) represents the Netherlands in international football. It is controlled by the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB), the governing body for football in the Netherlands.

The team is colloquially referred to as Het Nederlands Elftal (The Dutch Eleven) and Oranje, after the House of Orange-Nassau. Like the country itself, the team is sometimes (also colloquially) referred to as Holland.[5]

The Dutch hold the record for playing the most FIFA World Cup finals without ever winning the tournament. They finished second in the 19741978 and 2010 World Cups, losing to West GermanyArgentina and Spain respectively.[6] This has led to some calling the Netherlands national football team the "best team to have never won the world cup". However, they did win the UEFA European Championship in 1988