'It's a local derby, it means a lot': The Virgin Islands teams vying for a World Cup chance

Placed at 207th and 208th in the Fifa rankings, the rival islanders will meet for the first time in over adecade

- Paul MacInne s.

They share the same name, the same complicated history, and are separated by just 50km of Caribbean sea. They sit next to each other in the Fifa rankings and are about to play each other for a shot at international glory. This weekend, the road to World Cup 2026 begins in earnest with the resumption of a nascent rivalry: the British Virgin Islands against the US Virgin Islands, it's on, baby!

Well, maybe not quite. "OK, it's going to sound corny, but at the end of the day we're all Virgin Islanders," says Yohannes Worede, the president of the US Virgin Islands Soccer Federation. "To call it a rivalry is tough because there's a good chance that some of our players are even related to the British Virgin Islands. But what I will say is that when the lights shine bright, the US Virgin Islands comes to the table."

The British and US Virgin Islands are placed 207 and 208 respectively in the Fifa rankings for men's international teams. That puts them ahead of only Anguilla and San Marino, and tonight's fixture at the Bethlehem Soccer Stadium in St Croix, one of the three main US Virgin Islands, is the first of a two-leg playoff to enter Concacaf qualification proper. It will be the first time the countries have faced each other in more than a decade and only the ninth time ever. But it's a match-up of two countries desperate to grow their foothold in the international game.