Palau soldier on alone

The isolated Pacific nation faces a long and lonely battle to improve football on the island

- STEVE MENARY

The tiny island of Palau is one of only a handful of officially recognised countries still languishing outside of FIFA, but there are signs that organised football could be resurrected later this year.

Located in the North Pacific, south east of the Philippines, Palau is comprised of an archipelago of half a dozen island groups comprising more than 300 islands.

What football activity there has been has come out of Koror, where around half of the 22,000 population live. Palau sent a football side to the Micronesian Games with some success, finishing third in1998 and 2018 and runners up in 2014, but this year’s games in the Marshall Islands will not include football.

Football’s inclusion at the Games might have provided some impetus for Palau, where the local football association was hit by the departure of former president Charles Mitchell and then the COVID-19 pandemic. The league stopped and an annual general meeting could not be held in 2022 due to lack of members.