The last country on Earth without a national football team will usher in its first national team match in August

The Marshall Islands are the last country on Earth to have no national football team, and five years ago they set out to get rid of this awkward position.

In December 2022, they hired football coach Lloyd Als from Oxford, England as technical director, hoping to improve the team's strength.

"Currently, the focus is on building from scratch," Ors said in an interview shortly after taking office. When he accepted this position, Ors hadn't even been to the Marshall Islands - a small country of five islands, 29 atolls and about 60,000 people, located in the Pacific Ocean and more than 3,000 miles from Australia's northeast coast.

His first goal is to collect basic equipment for playing football in a place without a history of football and then introduce it to school curriculum to lay the foundation for the future. Two months later, they will usher in the first national team match. Last summer, the Marshall Islands Football Federation organized and hosted the first Otterig Challenge Cup, a five-a-side football tournament, with participating teams including the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and the Federal States of Micronesia and their respective B teams. In the end, Kiribati defeated host Micronesia 6-2 in the final.

Things are developing very quickly.

From August 13 to August 16 this year, the Marshall Islands will play its first 11-a-side international match in its history at the 2025 Otterigue Challenge Cup, with Ors going to serve as head coach.

"We just dreamed of this two years ago, and now it's going to come true," he said.

"This work has been going on for a long time. Since we started preparing, everyone is asking when the news for the first game will be released, but we first want to make sure the project is sustainable and everything is ready. So we have to choose a suitable time to post the message."

"We had a safer option, like holding the five-a-side football championship again this year, but it's not time to wait."

"We want to be a member of FIFA and have officially submitted the application through three different routes. In this way, I We have to have information on the 11-a-side game, so we think that this summer, we will hold the 11-a-side game. "

"We don't want to play low-risk games. We can find opponents from the same region and achieve very good results, but this will not bring any benefits to our credibility."

In addition to the Marshall Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands are also participating in this year's 11-a-side Otrig Challenge Cup, and the U19 echelon of Ozark United, which will join the UEFA team next season, which replaced the Guam team that announced the competition.

However, this event will not be held in the Marshall Islands, but at the Jarrell Williams Bulldog Stadium in Springdale, Arkansas, USA.

What is the reason? Thanks to free flow between the two countries, the American city has the largest number of Marshall people outside the Marshall Islands—a total of about 15,000. From a logistical point of view, this is obviously much simpler, too.

More important reason is that the Marshall Islands still have no stable source of funds to host football games, and Ors explained, "The Marshall Islands government will not provide any financial support until they join FIFA."

So, hosting this event mainly relies on sponsorship and donations, and a recent fundraising event received a donation of £21,573.

"This project is expensive, and we set ourselves a difficult task, but at the same time, we feel we need to take some risks. We would rather do big things than choose an easy one."

"We will continue to promote and raise awareness - the more activities we carry out, the greater the opportunity for people to provide financial support."

National Team Selection Range, about 100 people worldwide, now, preparations for the Otterig Challenge Cup have begun, with the focus on which players will be selected, and Ors said the total number of players he can actually select "are about 100 globally."

This number includes Marshallian players who grew up in the United States, as well as American players who grew up in the Marshall Islands. Two other teenagers living in Germany who contacted the Ors team via Instagram and later proved their Marshall Islands descent.

By introducing football into the school, Ors' selection range will become larger and larger.

"Our players are all very young," Ols added. "Apart from a few older players, most of them have just graduated from high school and are about to go to college or university."

"We are fully aware that this will be a tough test, but we are in the impression that you have to target opponents you often want to play. No one expects us to win, but if we can show some performance and prove that we are capable of participating, we will win."

"We don't want to have no matches in two years after playing this 11-a-side game. We hope this is just the beginning."

Apply to the three continents at the same time, hoping to become a FIFA membership has always been a priority in the Marshall Islands in addition to their first international competition. The chances of gaining recognition, funding and participating in the World Cup qualifiers will change their destiny.

But this is far from a simple process.

"Oceania Football Federation has issued an application guide that lists what potential members need to do, and we have a strategic document that matches it," said Ors. "I really believe this guide is for us because people don't realize we are progressing so quickly.. We realize that we actually meet a lot of the criteria for becoming a full membership, so we feel like we are in a very favorable position. "

" Unfortunately, Oceania Football Federation has not responded to our application so far, which is not good news for us. ”

" At the same time, we are now applying to join the AFC and the Central and North American and Caribbean Football Federations because we don't want to give up any possibility and they are more responsive. "

" Especially in cooperation with the AFC, from a transportation perspective, the advantages from the Marshall Islands to Asia are obvious. It is also very convenient to get from the Marshall Islands to Central and North America. We have direct flights to Honolulu, where we can fly to the United States, and we can also reach any Central and North America and Caribbean Football Federation member state. ”

"Geographically, the Marshall Islands are located in Oceania, but it is not a bad thing for Oceania countries to join other continents of football federations, and we are not the first one. This may drive us in a better direction, and I would say that by 2026 we hope to be in a good position, at least be able to knock on that door, and be a little more welcome than we are now. ”

Marshall Islands became his second home

Ors smiled and said that in addition to his daily work in the UK, the role of technical director is a full-time job in itself.

In addition to organizing the first 11-person international tournament and applying for FIFA membership, there is a lot of work behind the scenes to make progress.

Marchoro, Kwajalin and Ebeye Islands in the Marshall Islands have been held regularly, and the league structure is expected to be established in the future, not just to hold championships.

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The school has as many as 200 children playing football, and a women's five-a-side national team that trains and competes in the United States, and they have participated in two training camps so far. The school has also established a partnership with the Marshall Islands Special Olympics and plans to participate in the World Games in Chile in 2027. The Marshall Islands are now the second home of Ors.

"You walk into a supermarket and someone will ask: 'Are you playing football? ’Strangely, in the middle of the Pacific, there is a guy from Oxford, England who is famous for playing football! "

" When I first went there, I had no idea what would happen. This is the most remote place I have ever been to. But now, I feel like home. ”

"I have friends there; the community there is big, and everyone is very helpful. In the Marshall Islands, if someone has nothing, they will give you everything. Everyone helped each other and I felt very popular. "

" Two years have passed, and they have seen the benefits of football. Children have new hobbies and have found a real path to participate in different sports on behalf of their country. ”

7M Sport