There are few countries in the world that we have never heard of their involvement in this game, whether doing some friendly match, taking part in a competition or just talking about the game, i would say : Phillipines. any other countries you might think of ?
From the fifaworldcup.com website, I composed this list of countries that did not enroll in WC 2006 qualifications: ASIA Cambodia, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Myanmar, AFRICA Djibouti CONCACAF Puerto Rico Puerto Rico is the one that really sticks out for me. Like many of the countries from this region it is a big baseball nation, but so are Cuba and Panama and they both have improving national football teams.
Puerto Rico does have a national football team. They just suck. According to fifaworldcup.com, they have made 14 qualification games in their history and won only one of them (versus Dominican Republik, WC qualification 94).
Barcelona's greatest scorer of all time, a man that scored 395 goals in 396 games is from The Philippines, his name is Paulino Alcantara. They have an entire wing dedicated to him at the FC Barcelona museum. All the national soccer players from the PI come from his island, Iilio Iilio, and they are not good at all, Vietnam beat them 12-0 in the Tiger Cup. People play soccer in the PI but just like the USA, it will always be a basketball country. http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Pagoda/7029/ian.html He also coached the Spanish national team.
The Philippines also played and hosted the first ever international match in Asia. Paulino Alcantara was capped by the Philippines, but I am unsure whether he played in the first ever international match in Asia. The opponent was China. A few years, the Philippines also recruited Filippino players from the US to play for them.
What? Tahiti played 9 games in World Cup Qualifying and even reached the final group stage of the Oceania Qualifying...
still have their own NT. just like the faroe islands. or macau. chris armas played a friendly with the pureto rican NT. then he went on to play for the U.S.
So it's kinda like Hongkong has it's own national team eventhough it's back under Chinese government now ?
I have seen the Cambodian NT before. They are usually active in the SE Asian tournaments. The same goes with Myanmar. Brunei, I believed, do not have a NT, but fielded a team in the Malaysian league. Bhuta is simply too remote!!! It does not have newspaper nor TV station. What about New caledona? They produce a World Cup winner, but they never played in the WC.
Yes and no. PR is officially a part of USA but they compete in sports seperately. For instance, they have a separate Olympic team.
Puerto Rico rejected the offer to become the 51st state, I think they are semi-independent? They will probably seperate from the USA in a not too far future, if they wanted the be American they would not have turned down the idea of becoming an official US state. Bhutan has a NT and played the famous "Other Final" versus Montserrat in 2002. Brunei has a team in Malaysia's top division. Macau and Hong Kong both have seperate national sides. New Caledonia and Tahiti both competed in the Oceanian WC qualifiers. Tahiti or New Zealand or Solomon Isles will probably become the dominant side of OFC.
A territory which has a large degree of independence, yes, Gerrit, but the rest of the first paragraph didn't/isn't happening unless I'm out to pasture.
Greenland competes in non-FIFA tournaments and will participate in the NF Board's alternative World Cup (the WC for non-FIFA-affiliated countries) Also, as soon as Greenland has a stadium meeting international criteria, they will join FIFA. Nuuk's city hall is already busy with constructing the stadium, so Greenland will affiliate in the not very far future. Other countries that are entering the alternative World Cup and may sooner or later affiliate to FIFA: Gibraltar Northern Cyprus Kosova Lapland/Sami Tibet Falkland Islands Western Sahara (not sure they'll compete in the alternative WC) Tuvalu Vatican City Monaco
Er...Neutral Zone? Vatican,Greenland and Brunei could make a NT.I think FIFA could accept Vatican games at Rome without problem.Greenland is makig their stadium,and Brunei would have financial ways to improve their football.