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Want To Play Against A Country? The Chagos Islands National Team Are Looking For Opponents

Want To Play Against A Country? The Chagos Islands National Team Are Looking For Opponents

Fancy your chances?

Jack Kenmare

Jack Kenmare

Have you ever wanted to test yourself against a country? Are you and your teammates are up for the task? Well, The Chagos Islands National Team is currently looking for opponents.

You must be based in the UK to play in the potential friendly, where you will face Jimmy Ferrar's talented side.

The Chagos Islands is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 individual tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, situated some 500 km due south of the Maldives.

Until today the Chagos Islands national team, who are currently ranked 36 in the Confica world rankings, have only played three friendly matches, all against Sealand (3-1, 2-4 and 1-1).

Image: Chagos/Twitter
Image: Chagos/Twitter

The Chagos Islands national team now aims to step forward and play in their first international tournament in CONIFA as soon as possible.

But they want to play a number of friendlies in the meantime. That's when you come in.

Justin Walley, the African President of CONIFA and Chagos, has been inundated with invitations in recent days but he is still eager to hear from others.

"The response to my tweet asking for friendly matches against the Chagos Islands has been absolutely phenomenal." he told SPORTbible.

"I spent six hours on Wednesday replying to teams and coaches and woke up on Thursday morning to find my inbox piled high again."

He continued, saying: "I think the opportunity to play against a national team has really captured the imagination of many football people from Sunday League to top non league teams.

"I've even had one national team and an English Premier League Academy contact me. It also shows the increasingly high profile of CONIFA and its members.

"Panjab, for example played Liverpool U23s and England C last year. The Chagos Islands story is unknown to most people in the UK.

"I would urge people to read up about how the Chagossians were evicted from their homeland in the 1960s and understand why most now live in the UK and Mauritius."

Justin, who coached Matabeleland and took them to the CONIFA World Football Cup in London last year, has urged any UK teams who are interested in playing CONIFA teams to contact him HERE.

There are also opportunities to volunteer with Conifa teams such as the Chagos Islands and Barawa, based in the UK, to help with their continued development.

To learn more about The Chagos Islands and Confica, visit their official website.

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Football News, Sunday League, Football, Non League, friendly, UK