The FIFA World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. It has been contested every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.

The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently takes place over the three years preceding the finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the finals. The current format of the finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the final of the 2006 tournament.^[1]

The Indonesia national football team has only reached the FIFA World Cup finals once: the 1938 World Cup in France, where they competed under the name Dutch East Indies. The Dutch East Indies gained independence from the Netherlands and became known as Indonesia in 1945, and FIFA considers them to have inherited the record of the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch East Indies played their first World Cup finals match against Hungary in the round of 16 of the 1938 tournament, losing 6–0. The straight knockout format used at the time made it the only game the team played at the tournament. Thus, Indonesia is the sole record holder for the fewest matches played (1) at a World Cup, and one of several to have scored no goals.

The team tasted their first World Cup action as Indonesia in qualifying for the 1958 tournament. They got past China in the first round, but refused to play their next opponents Israel. The team did not take part in qualifying for the next three World Cups due to an unfavourable political situation – both internally and externally – before re-entering in 1974.

Overall record

Final											Qualification
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Squad		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
as Dutch East Indies
1930	Did not enter									Did not enter
1934
1938	Round of 16	15th	1	0	0	1	0	6	Squad	Automatically qualified
as  Indonesia
1950	Withdrew									Withdrew
1954	Did not enter									Did not enter
1958	Withdrew during qualification									3	1	1	1	5	4
1962	Withdrew									Withdrew
1966	Did not enter									Did not enter
1970
1974	Did not qualify									6	1	2	3	6	13
1978										4	1	1	2	7	7
1982										8	2	2	4	5	14
1986										8	4	1	3	9	10
1990										6	1	3	2	5	10
1994										8	1	0	7	6	19
1998										6	1	4	1	11	6
2002										6	4	0	2	16	7
2006										6	2	1	3	8	12
2010										2	0	0	2	1	11
2014										8	1	1	6	8	30
2018	Disqualified due to FIFA suspension									Disqualified
2022	Did not qualify									8	0	1	7	5	27
2026	To be determined									To be determined
2030
2034
Total	Round of 16	15th	1	0	0	1	0	6	–	79	19	17	43	92	170

By match

World Cup	Round	Opponent	Score	Result	Venue	Scorers
1938	Round of 16	Hungary	0–6	L	Reims	—

Record by opponent

FIFA World Cup matches (by team)
Opponent	Wins	Draws	Losses	Total	Goals Scored	Goals Conceded
Hungary	0	0	1	1	0	6

Dutch East Indies at the 1938 FIFA World Cup

Hungary v Dutch East Indies

5 June 1938

17:00 WEST (UTC+01)

Hungary	6–0	Dutch East Indies
Kohut 14' Toldi 16' Sárosi 25', 88' Zsengellér 30', 67'	Report

Vélodrome Municipal, Reims

Attendance: ~8,000

Referee: Roger Conrié (France)

Hungary

Dutch East Indies

GK József Háda DF Lajos Korányi DF Sándor Bíró MF József Turay MF Gyula Lázár MF István Balogh FW Géza Toldi FW György Sárosi (c) FW Ferenc Sas FW Gyula Zsengellér FW Vilmos Kohut Manager: Károly Dietz and Alfréd Schaffer

GK Mo Heng Tan DF Frans Hu Kon DF Jack Samuels MF Achmad Nawir (c) MF Frans Meeng MF Sutan Anwar FW The Hong Djien FW Isaak Pattiwael FW Hans Taihuttu FW Suvarte Soedarmadji FW Henk Zomers Manager: Johannes Mastenbroek