Soccer OFC: Nauru has friendlies and its goal of building a football pitch

In this article we will analyze how football develops on this small island in Oceania.

Writer by Sports & News Continental | From New Zealand, OFC

#Episode8 OFC SOCCER ANALYSIS

Nauru is the world's smallest island nation and has a remarkable history, as "Phosphate Island," which made it one of the richest countries (per capita) for a period, before mining depleted its resources and devastated its landscape.

Two matches mark the history of the national team The match on October 2, 1994, when a Nauruan national team defeated a team of expatriate workers from the Solomon Islands 2-1 in the town of Denigomodu. In 2014, another Nauruan representative team played against a team from the Nauru Regional Processing Centre in celebration of World Refugee Day.

The first formal attempt to create a football federation took place in 2018 with the founding of the Nauru Soccer Association. However, the project encountered difficulties, especially with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. A major milestone in the history of football in Nauru was the relaunch of the federation in 2023 as the Nauru Soccer Federation (NSF). Under a new board, the NSF has set ambitious goals. The federation's main objective is to create a football culture from the grassroots, organize local tournaments, and eventually achieve affiliation with the OFC and FIFA. The NSF has hired former Premier League player Dave Kitson as the national team's coach and international ambassador. The federation is involved in plans to form a new regional sub-confederation, the Micronesia Football Federation, which would also include Kiribati, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands, with the aim of holding joint tournaments. A new stadium, the New Nauru Stadium, is under construction, scheduled to be used for the 2026 Micronesia Games. This will be the first regulation-sized football pitch on the island.

The main sport in Nauru remains Australian rules football (AFL), due to the lack of traditional football pitches.

Initiatives such as the OFC's, with FIFA's support, to add regional content to FIFA+ and also the possible creation of the OFC Professional League will professionalize the region's elite and consequently bring the spotlight to countries where football is still.

In short, although football has a history of friendly matches, it is still behind in the next step, which would be to create an amateur league after the construction of the field in 2026. They are close to participating in the 2028 OFC Nations Cup qualifiers, and the experience of international friendlies combined with the construction of a field helps..