Romania is one of only four teams to compete in all of the first three World Cups but didn't get passed the first round. Romania only qualified once between 1950 and 1986 but then had a solid spell through the 90's with three World Cups reaching the quarter finals in 1994.

Romania were handed a tough Qualifying group for the 2006 World Cup. They were up against both Holland and Czech Republic. A poor start to the group left Romania with too much ground to make up and despite beating Czech Republic 2 - 0 at home they finished 3rd in the group.