For most of the population and football players on Saipan, the rapid rise and success of the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association goes mostly unnoticed. To the international footballing world, however, the local phenomenon is cause for substantial curiosity.
In Steve Menary's recent publication, Outcasts: The Lands That FIFA Forgot (Know The Score Books Limited, London, 2007), an entire chapter is based on the unlikely emergence of NMIFA to join the world community of soccer-crazed nations.
Menary has delicately studied and reviewed the attempts and universal frustrations of a collection of nations, localities, and tribes to advance up the ladder of international soccer to gain inclusion and monies from the world governing body for the sport, Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Admission into this fraternity ensures a quadrennial payout of FIFA largesse to the tune of $1 million per member every World Cup cycle to develop the sport in their area.
The book examines the plight of numerous destinations aspiring to attain the lofty status of FIFA membership and several splinter competitions. Countries attempting to ascend to FIFA status range from the tragic (Kosovo) to the politically entangled (Zanzibar, Northern Cyprus, Tibet, Gibraltar) to the administratively hindered (a slew of islands affiliated with Great Britain, Monaco, Greenland) to the absurd (The Vatican, Sealand). There is a tribe of people dispersed over the northern reaches of Finland, Sweden and Norway called the Sampi efforting to gain admittance.
The most fascinating and frustrating aspect of the book is that FIFA does not have either a clear cut inclusion criteria or a precise definition of what constitutes a country. FIFA's own by-laws and precedent only makes the process more confounding as they must balance their own best interests with those of their existing members. FIFA's longstanding public claim to be apolitical is never to be taken seriously.
China has allowed Hong Kong and Macau into FIFA's fold, but has blocked Tibet's efforts to become a member at every move. Great Britain is not one team, but four (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland). Guam and Puerto Rico, both U.S. minions, are full-fledged FIFA members.
Menary points out that 23 of the 207 present FIFA members are not even considered countries by the United Nations.
Of all the communities reviewed in the book, the Northern Mariana Islands stands remarkably alone in their success and happenstance. From its humble onset in 2005 under the leadership of Peter Coleman and Jerry Tan, the NMIFA wished only for a dependable avenue to involve the youth of the island in the world's most popular sport. That has since morphed into a much more grand ambition with the assistance of the Guam Football Association and the sponsorship of the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF).
The book chronicles the unprecedented success of sending the NMIFA Boys UI4 squad to the EAFF Championships in 2006 and the NMIFA Men's National Team to the EAFF playoff with Guam in 2007. The remarkable aspect of these events is not the NMIFA quality of play, certainly, but the fact that they were involved in officially sanctioned matches at all. The NMIFA Women's National Team has also played in a friendly international and will be on track for a full international in the EAFF Championships next year. This has all occurred in a mere two-year span.
Many countries with deep football roots are still hoping for just such a chance. Zanzibar, with a population over a million persons and a distinct national football association since 1926, is still waiting for their first internationally recognized match. Despite many aspects that would indicate they are a separate nation, FIFA insists they are part of the Tanzanian Football Federation. Consider Kosovo, a country which could field a quality team on the world stage, left in perpetual FIFA limbo as the demons of the Balkan Conflict still swirl in this arena. Serbia, a present FIFA member, insists it will never recognize Kosovo's independence.
The NMIFA chapter is an expansion from the article Menary did for World Soccer Magazine in July 2007. Most of the data is pulled from articles that appeared in the local newspapers and from direct email correspondence with the principals. There are a few names spelled incorrectly in the local cast of characters, however, and several other incidental inaccuracies. The attention given to the NMIFA Women's effort could have been expanded as they provide a very strong aspect to the NMIFA story as well.
The book is timely in regards to the NMIFA drive to becoming FIFA members. The local FA still has no decided plan for a true stadium and there remains a paucity of pitches available for the players on Saipan. Standing by-laws are still a promise. The most recent women's season will be a depleted seven-a-side affair. The development of referees has been slow. Yet, despite these hurdles as Menary illustrates in his book, the NMIFA may actually have an outside shot at gaining the coveted entry into FIFA's graces. NMIFA has influential benefactors as well as a unique political and geographical identity. These facts and a bit of good fortune just may allow the Northern Mariana Islands to succeed where so many others have been left wanting for so long. (Vince Stravino)
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