Marshall Islands: The only nation without a national team… Until now!
Football in the Pacific Ocean has its own special characteristics, each island nation stretching across it from Asia to the Americas may not be known for its footballing prowess, but for the hard and romantic efforts it makes to show itself on the world football map, one of them is the Marshall Islands, the last nation without a national team... until now.
The Marshall Islands are located in the central Pacific Ocean, between Hawaii and Papua New Guinea, and are a cluster of 29 coral atolls and five islands, totaling 34, of which 24 are inhabited. Until 1986, the country was under from the guardianship of the United States.
The Marshall Islands are known for the nuclear tests carried out by the Americans on Bikini Atoll, in total from 1946 to 1958 the USA carried out 66 tests of atomic or hydrogen bombs in the area of the Marshall Islands. While there is still an American base on the Kwajalein Island. The result of the nuclear tests was to contaminate many of the islanders with radioactivity, this resulted in the US government paying over $112 million in compensation to the victims' families. In 1994 it was revealed by US Department of Energy documents that the islands had been deliberately exposed to high levels of radiation in order to study its effects on humans. To this day, the country's major problem is the heavy contamination caused by nuclear testing and the transfer of toxic waste from the US.
The main sports on the islands are volleyball, basketball, baseball and a number of water sports. While the first representation in Olympic games was in 2008 in Beijing by 5 athletes (3 men and 2 women). Another problem in the country, easier than atomic bombs, does not have a national football team.
In 2020, the Marshall Islands Football Association was established with the aim of creating a base for the sport in the islands. The Marshall Islands is not a member of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), or FIFA, but they are preparing the file to become an official member, logically there will be no difficulties for OFC, but to become a member of FIFA is quite a bit more difficult.
The first start was made with the construction in 2023 of the “Majuro Track and Field” stadium, a multi-purpose stadium with a capacity of 2,000 people on the island of Majuro, which is also the capital of the Islands. The project started in 2020 and was completed during the Covid-19 pandemic, also the Micronesian Games were scheduled to be held in 2023, but will eventually be held in 2024 due to the pandemic. The second step was to take up the position of technical director, this position was filled by British Lloyd Owers in December 2022, Owers a UEFA B coach is responsible for setting up the football structure for the islands, including the development programs schools and youth up to the national team. The third was the Futsal league of the islands which took place in August 2023. Futsal is definitely a start. And the fourth is Justin Walley taking over as Director of Volunteer Communications.
The Futsal league has been doing well so far, it has attracted interest and so far there are 28 players involved in this league. Definitely a good start, also the stadium on the island of Majuro is almost ready and if there are no unforeseen circumstances the Micronesia games will be held there as usual from 15 to 24 June 2024. Lloyd Owers traveled to the islands of Augustus to teach the locals the secrets of football. Naturally there was a response, which shows that the world has seen the sport "warmly".
A few days ago it was announced by the Football Federation that the first futsal tournament, the Ratak Cup, the tournament will be held from January 27th until February 3rd, of course at the unique stadium of Majuro.
The Federation naturally also made their own jerseys, the design was created by Argentinian Micael Altarimano, who won the competition and the vibrant colors and intricate designs reflect the spirit and cultural heritage of the nation, for the team kit the PlayerLayer Ecolayer was chosen and the jersey was created from a combination of organic cotton, recycled plastic and bamboo charcoal. This shirt has special significance as it will be worn by the national team players during their opening match, scheduled to take place in 2024.
In August 2023, Lloyd Owers traveled to the Marshall Islands and created the first coach seminar on the island, now with Justin Walley in the capital Majuro things are moving faster.
The only thing that is certain is that the foundations have been laid for the most popular game in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, either by the name of soccer, or by the name of football, the sport will definitely develop, the second biggest problem that affects the islands after the nuclear tests is the climate change, scientists have predicted that 40% of the country's habitable islands may be under the sea by 2030! Neighboring countries such as Tuvalu and Kiribati have already spoken about their problem of becoming landless nations in a few years. In fact, Tuvalu can become the world's first digital nation, i.e. without its citizens having migrated to other neighboring states and all the history and history of their state being stored in a digital cloud.
I had the honor of speaking to the Federation's Technical Director, Lloyd Owers and Volunteer Communications Director Justin Walley, about the difficult undertaking they have undertaken. Because Lloyd Owers was in England and Justin Walley was in the Marshall Islands, the interview was done separately and in two places, due to the time difference we had.
The interview with Lloyd Owers:
Christos Kazantzoglou: Who is Lloyd Owers and why did he decide to take up the position of Technical Director in the Marshall Islands?
Lloyd Owers: I have worked in a range of positions in football for around 17 years from children to professional adults in UK, Sweden, Canada and USA.
I had the chance to become the Marshall Islands TD following my Masters degree in Performance Coaching and jumped at the chance to be involved on the international stage but to also play a part in growing awareness to a nation who has struggles through the medium of sport.
Christos Kazantzoglou: How easy or difficult do you think ισ the work you have undertaken, when you do not live permanently on the islands?
Lloyd Owers: It’s been ok. Initially it was all about content creation - speaking to locals and building national plans that combined my ideas and style with Marshallese cultures and beliefs.
Since then, myself visiting Majuro and implementing sessions for children and adults as well as coach education has sparked more interest and regularity in sessions and now with Justin being there too, it is maintaining progress. It would obviously be easier if you can control it on the ground daily but it’s been ok with some good helpers on island.
Christos Kazantzoglou: What development possibilities are there? Usually the small island states of the Pacific are "punching bags" for the larger island nations in the region.
Lloyd Owers: At the moment it’s tough to say as we receive no funding and we aren’t a member of a confederation but we are aiming to grow as much as possible to then raise awareness to AFC and OFC and almost say ‘this is what we are doing, can you help us get to the next level?’ We have a coaching course, weekly sessions and aims for national teams but we need funds to make those games happen.
Christos Kazantzoglou: How have the people of Marshalls seen the development of football? The islands were until 1986 under the tutelage of the USA and sports like basketball, baseball and of course water sports, I imagine dominate.
Lloyd Owers: It’s actually worked in our favour in terms of basketball. We are focusing on small sided games and futsal in the Marshall Islands as a developmental tool but also a sport in its own right. Due to this, we are using basketball courts to play on. Players have a loose understanding already due to the similarities to basketball tactically and physically.
Christos Kazantzoglou: Is climate change a big problem? How much will it affect the area? It is estimated that by 2030 the Pacific Ocean will have "devoured" at best, approximately 40% of the habitable areas of the country.
Lloyd Owers: It’s a huge problem. People will lose everything they have and it’s seemingly unstoppable. With this project, it loosely raises awareness to this problem and so we can only hope that someone sees it and wants to help.
Christos Kazantzoglou: Tell me a few things about the Ratak Cup that will be held, it will be futsal right?
Lloyd Owers: This weekend we will host the adult version of the tournament and next weekend, the youth version with 3 age bandings. We aim for it to be an annual competition. It’s futsal based and we are excited!
Christos Kazantzoglou: Last question, are you thinking of moving permanently to the tropical paradise?
Lloyd Owers: Not right now. My family and I are settled and the role can be completed on a hybrid basis but once future funding comes in, who knows?!
The interview with Justin Walley was conducted over the phone and can be heard on Rumble:
Click here to listen to the interview.
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The article was published on 01/27/2024 on the skygoal.gr page and you can read it in Greek here.
With information from Marshall Islands Soccer Federation and Wikipedia