Football on the Falklands

Re-establishment of the league gives football a boost on the South Atlantic islands

- STEVE MENARY

The 2023 Island Games proved a tough tournament for the Falkland Islands, but the game continues to solider on in the small South Atlantic outpost despite a tiny playing pool and lack of any official recognition.

Eight sides contested this year’s four-a-side indoor league in Stanley with Workboat Services winning the title. Four teams are expected to contest the 11-a-side outdoor season starting in mid-November 2023.

A new 4G AstroTurf pitch that opened in February 2023 in Stanley, where most of the Falklands’ 3,000 population live, has helped stoke enthusiasm but games for the Islands’ representative team remain scarce. Matches against teams from the British military presence on the islands had been a regular fixture but have proved hard to arrange in recent years.

“I am hopeful that the Falklands team will get more regular matches with the military lads this season. We have been making some arrangements already,” says Troyd Bowles, chief pilot at the Falkland Islands Government Air Service and manager of the Island Games side.