The last nation on Earth without a national team preparing for historic tournament

Five years ago, the Marshall Islands launched their mission to shrug off the status as the last country on Earth without a football team.

In December 2022, they ramped things up by hiring Oxford-based coach Lloyd Owers as their technical director.

"At the moment, the focus is on building from the ground up," he said in an interview with Sky Sports, shortly after his appointment.

At that point, he had not even visited the tiny nation - made up of five islands, 29 atolls and around 60,000 people, which is situated in the Pacific Ocean, more than 3,000 miles off the north east coast of Australia.

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The first aim was to gather basic equipment to play football in a place with no prior history of the game, then to introduce it to school curriculums to lay the foundations for the future.

Last summer, the Marshall Islands Soccer Federation organised and hosted the inaugural Outrigger Challenge Cup, a futsal tournament contested by themselves, Kiribati and Micronesia, and a B Team from each. Kiribati beat the hosts 6-2 in the final.

The project's progress has been rapid.

So much so that, between August 13 and August 16, the Marshall Islands will play their first-ever 11 vs 11 internationals in the 2025 Outrigger Challenge Cup, with Owers at the helm as head coach.

"Two years ago we could only dream about it and now it's going to happen," he says.

"It's been a work in progress for a long time. Since we started, everyone has been asking when the first game would be, but we wanted to make sure the project was sustainable and we had the right things in place first. It had to be the right time.

"We could have taken the safer option of doing the futsal tournament again this year, but time is ticking.

"We want to be confederation members and we've formally applied for three different routes. With that, we do have to be 11 vs 11-present as well, so we thought, this summer, that's what we're going to do.

"We don't want to have low-risk games where we might play someone locally in the region and do really, really well, but it's not going to do us any favours credibility-wise."

Also taking part in this year's historic tournament are the US Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands and MLS Next side Ozark United U19, who recently replaced the previously announced Guam.

It will not be hosted in the Marshall Islands this time around, though. Instead, the matches will take place at the Jarrell Williams Bulldog Stadium in Springdale, Arkansas.

The reasoning? The US city has the largest population of Marshallese people - totally around 15,000 - outside of the country itself, owing to free movement between the two nations. Logistically speaking, it is obviously a lot simpler, too.

What makes this more impressive is the fact the Marshall Islands still have no regular funding stream, as Owers explains.

"We have good connections to the government and they are supportive in what they do. They help us with rolling the support out, especially across the main island of Majuro, and we have a good relationship with the education ministers.

"But there will be nothing financially from the government until there is a confederation membership, which is a bit of a catch-22." More on that in a moment.

And so the project relies on sponsorships and donations, with a recent Kickstarter campaign raising £21,573.

"It's expensive one and we set ourselves a massive task, but at the same time, we felt we needed to take a risk. We'd rather go big than take the easy option.

"We will just keep pushing and raising awareness - and the more activity we have, the more opportunity there is for people to get involved financially."

Now the countdown to the tournament is on, the focus is on which players will make up the squad and Owers says the pool of players he could realistically pick for the squad totals "around 100 worldwide".

That figure includes players of Marshallese descent who grew up in the United States, as well as players of American descent who grew up in the Marshall Islands. It also includes two teenagers who live in Germany, who reached out via Instagram and subsequently proved their heritage.

By introducing football to schools, from now, that pool will only grow.

"Our players are very young," Owers adds. "Bar a couple of older players in the group that will play this summer, most are just finishing high school, starting college or in college.

"We're fully aware it's going to be a tough test, but we're under the impression you've got to be aiming to play against those you want to be playing against on a regular basis. No one expects us to win the games, but if we can put on a bit of a show and show that we can take part, then we will.

"But we don't want this 11 vs 11 game to happen and then we don't play again for two years. We want this to be the start."

Aside from playing international football for the first time, obtaining confederation membership has always been right at the top of the Marshall Islands' agenda. The recognition, funding and chance to play in World Cup qualifying matches would be game-changing.

But it is far from a straightforward process.

"OFC (Oceania Football Confederation) put out a guideline of what prospective members needed to do to apply and we created our strategy document to align with it," Owers says.

"I genuinely believe it was on the back of what we've managed to do because we've been the noisy neighbours and I don't think people realised how quickly we would progress.

"We realised we were actually meeting so much of the criteria for full membership, not just affiliate membership, so we felt like we were in a real strong position.

"Unfortunately, OFC has not responded to our application other than via a journalist in New Zealand. Almost with a message of 'Yes, you're in a strong position, but it's an extra nation we have to give our funding to', which isn't great for us.

"At the same time, now we're applying for AFC (Asian Football Confederation) and CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) because we don't want to close those doors off, and they are actually more responsive.

"Especially with AFC, logistically, we're in a strong position to get to Asia from the Marshall Islands. We also have direct flights to Honolulu, then to mainland USA and we can get to any of those CONCACAF nations.

"It technically might lie in Oceania, but maybe it's not a bad thing that OFC have done that because it's maybe pushed us in a better direction and I'd like to say that, by 2026, we'll hopefully in a strong position to at least be knocking on that door to be welcomed in a little bit more than we are now."

Owers laughs as he says his technical director role is a full-time job in itself, on top of the full-time job he holds down day-to-day in the UK. But it is clearly paying off.

Along with organising the first internationals and confederation membership applications, there is so much work going on behind the scenes to progress.

There are regular sessions taking place on the islands of Majuro, Kwajalein and Ebeye, and there is a hope to establish a league structure in future, rather than solely tournament-focused matches.

As many as 200 children play football in schools and there is a US-based women's national futsal team, who have taken part in two training camps so far. There is a partnership with the Special Olympics Marshall Islands, too, and an aim to take part in the World Games in Chile in 2027.

The Marshall Islands are now a home away from home for Owers.

"You go into a supermarket and someone will ask: 'Are you the soccer guy?!' It's strange that, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there's some bloke who lives near Oxford who's known for football!

"The first time I went, I didn't really know what to expect. It's the most remote place I've ever been to. But now there's a sense of home to it.

"I've got friends there; there's a massive community and people want to help you. It's one of those places where, if someone doesn't have anything, they'll give you whatever they have. Everyone helps everyone and it just feels welcoming.

"Two years on, they're seeing the benefits of it. Kids have got a new hobby and there is a genuine pathway where you can represent your country in a different sport.

"You can get off the island and you can visit new places and have those experiences that two years ago you couldn't. Even a year ago you couldn't, so now that is actually happening, people are starting to say this is good. It's a nice place to be."

The Marshall Islands continue to raise funds for their project via GoFundMe - support here