Pacific nations return from football wilderness

By Mathew Nash

Men’s teams in action at the Football Federation Samoa competition. May 2023
Photo: Football Federation Samoa

The men’s national football teams of American Samoa, Samoa and Tonga will soon return to FIFA’s official world rankings when they play their first fixtures in over four years.

All three teams are scheduled to compete at the Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands, with the men’s football competition underway from tomorrow, Friday, 17 November. But they are doing so under the ignominy of currently being unranked by football’s world governing body.

All three Pacific nations were scrubbed from the rankings, currently topped by Lionel Messi’s Argentina, due to a four-year period of inactivity in July.

The trio played their last competitive fixture on 18 July, 2019, at the previous edition of the Pacific Games. In order to be eligible for FIFA’s official listings, teams must have played a game within the past 48 months.

All three missed the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar – their best chance for regular football in that period.

American Samoa and Samoa pulled out due to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tonga were then forced to withdraw from a one-off play-off against the Cook Islands, following the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption and tsunami in December 2021.

However, former Samoa head coach Matt Calcott believes the problems are more far-reaching than simply being Covid-19 related.

The New Zealander was appointed in February 2021, as the pandemic raged on, but left his role late last year without ever guiding his team in a senior fixture.

Calcott recognises the impact of Covid-19 for the early stage of his tenure but points out that Samoa’s borders reopened in August 2022 and there were also possibilities to play elsewhere.

“We spoke about trying to do mini tours within New Zealand,” Calcott said.

“We had a national camp in Auckland last year, which was very well received, had a bunch of boys flying in from all over New Zealand and Australia and there was a real buzz.

“The Federation had said that they were going to pump out six a year but it turned out to be kind of a one week thing.”

During his time with the island nation, he was part of a talent identification programme which helped uncover an untapped pool of players of Samoan heritage across Australia and New Zealand. He estimates 40-50 players were identified in total, a recruitment programme that garnered international media attention.

Despite some success in the women’s and youth space, Calcott fears this opportunity may not be capitalised on effectively.

“There’s kind of like a whole new generation of players now which makes a big difference and that’s where the frustration lies,” he explained.

“There has been a really big push for these players and I wouldn’t be surprised if they could actually crack on and do some good things but unfortunately, it feels like that may not continue.”

Barriers to growth

While Calcott could not speak to the specific experiences of American Samoa and Tonga, he believes Samoa’s case highlights the difficulties smaller nations face aligning their football programmes with the executive demands above them.

“There needs to be some real robust conversations with OFC and FIFA around countries like Samoa,” he said.

“In this case, they did have access to good coaches, they did have access to good facilities. Programmes were suggested and not far off implemented but perhaps the failure to keep things underway cost them.

“I don’t want to be too harsh but I do not actually see what the barriers were other than in the office.

“I am still pretty passionate about Samoa and I still like to see them do well but you can only do so much. It’s like a leading-a-horse-to-water situation.”

OFC, who govern the 11 nations who make up the Oceania football region, state that support was offered to all nations throughout the pandemic. This was not just financially, such as via the OFC Solidarity Fund, but through high performance consultation and, in Samoa’s case, facility usage.

“Covid-19 and the border closures in 2020 shut down our competitions for more than two years,” OFC head of football Patrick Jacquemet said.

“The Pacific was hard hit and it took some time for borders to fully reopen and competitions to start up again.”

American Samoa’s national football team are currently a hot topic again, with Next Goal Wins, the Taika Waititi-directed feature recently hitting the screens. The film loosely depicts the team’s real-life retribution story following a world record 31-0 humbling to Australia in 2001.

Despite the thrashing, American Samoa were at least a FIFA-ranked nation for that fixture, albeit dead-last at 203. Now, alongside Samoa and Tonga, they find themselves in the wilderness.

Calcott believes it is a situation that could have easily been avoided with the right organisation, suggesting the teams could have played each other, potentially at neutral venues in Australia or New Zealand.

At times, the players themselves have been driving things. Sources from inside one of the respective camps, who we have agreed not to identify, suggested players tried to contact their federation’s head office for months to no avail. All three nations were contacted regarding a comment for this story, but did not respond.

This week will see the end of the football hiatus for American Samoa, Samoa and Tonga’s men’s teams and it will soon be followed by a return to the FIFA World Rankings.

But to avoid a repeat of becoming unranked again in another four years time, Calcott has a simple message learned from his tumultuous tenure at the helm in Apia.

“The big thing for Samoa and teams like that, and I say this in a positive way, for the men and the women is that they need to play, have camps and regularly get together,” he says.

“There’s a lot of other stuff ongoing of course but the most important thing is to keep your teams out there playing games, improving and being in robust programmes. The big message here that I am trying to say is simple – don’t forget the football.”

Samoa get their Pacific Games men’s football campaign underway against host nation the Solomon Islands tomorrow, before facing American Samoa, in their first game of the tournament, three days later on 20 November.

Tonga begin their campaign against New Caledonia on Saturday.