SAINTS ON MARCH
Pat McGuinness reports on how remote Saint Helena are preparing to test themselves on the international stage...
Saint Helena’s big adventure
THE Inter Games in Anglesey in June may not be capturing much public attention, but it’s like the Champions League and World Cup rolled into one for the footballers of Saint Helena.
It will be the first time that a football team from the remote British Overseas Territory, situated around 1,950 kilometres west of Namibia in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean (and the island where Napoléon Bonaparte spent his last years in exile), will play an official match against other representative opposition and also the first time that a football team from the island has ventured abroad.
Life on Saint Helena has been changing since the much-anticipated (and long-delayed) opening of the island’s airport in 2016, making it somewhat more accessible to the outside world.
The airport’s opening heralded the more recent retirement of the Royal Mail ship St Helena early last year, a vessel which was, for so many years, the South Atlantic island’s lifeline to the rest of the world.
During the era of the RMS Saint Helena, a crowdfunding initiative on behalf of the Saint Helena Football Association (SHFA) unsuccessfully attempted to raise the funds necessary to take part in the 2011 NatWest Island Games football tournament.
Eight years on from their first abortive attempt to play in the Island Games, the SHFA are aiming to take part in the (unofficial) edition, the Inter Games Football Tournament - or, more colloquially, in the style of ‘London 2012’, ‘Ynys Môn 2019’ - which will be held on the Welsh island of Anglesey (Ynys Môn)
in June. Thirty-five players from the island’s nine clubs put themselves forward for inclusion in the final squad of 20, and training got under way in September.
It took place twice a week despite a four-week period of inactivity due to inclement weather which saw the island’s only football pitch at Francis Plain waterlogged and led to the suspension of the nine-team league. It was eventually won by Harts, who defeated reigning champions Rovers 1-0 in a playoff after both teams finished level on points. Rovers gained their revenge on their rivals, winning the Knockout Cup by four goals to two.
The Saint Helena national team stepped up their training to four days a week and at the beginning of February played three practice matches in the space of four days against local selections. They won all three convincingly: 12-0, 9-2 and 12-0.
Rico Benjamin – who scored at least three goals per game - Matthias Young and Brett Isaac were in particularly prolific form, with the domestic season’s top scorer, Ronan Legg, scoring a hattrick in the first match. Since the end of February, the team have played another half-a-dozen friendlies at Francis Plain, taking on not only local selections but also a pitch increasingly pock-marked with rabbit-burrows. Dealing with two adversaries at the same time has done the Saint Helena side’s technical skills no harm, nor their confidence - they won all six matches handsomely.
The SHFA will be bringing a backroom team comprised entirely of locals, as chairman and manager Nick Stevens and the association’s committee felt the players would be better able to relate to them than to coaches from outside the island.
The chairman has noticed the difference in the players since they began training intensively and is optimistic about their chances.
“We are aiming to shock a few people,” he said. “I am happy with the coaching team we have here and we’ve got the boys playing a good standard of football.
“We have already shocked the local footballers as to how much we have improved the standard of the squad in terms of fitness and football.
“I have high expectations, although
we are going into the unknown. From footage that we have watched, we feel we can compete well.
“We’ve certainly got the skill and speed to cause the other teams problems.
“We have a few players who could play league football in England.”
Ten teams will be competing in the men’s Inter Games tournament: together with Saint Helena, hosts Ynys Môn (Anglesey) and the Norwegian island of Hitra, Shetland, Orkney, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney entered the hat at the end of January.
The Saints were not given a hugely favourable draw when they were drawn in Group C together with Guernsey and Shetland, two teams with a proven Island Games track record.
The response on the island of Saint Helena to their fledgling national side’s appeal for funds has been phenomenal - everything from a car raffle through sponsored walks and a weight-loss competition to a reggae night has been organised on-island in an attempt to raise the money needed to send the team to Wales.
The SHFA have also brought out rather natty replica shirts which are proving quite popular with islanders and shirt-collectors alike.
More than £40,000 has been raised or pledged so far, and that is some effort for an island with a tiny population (around 4,500) where the median wage-earner takes home £158 per week, where the cost of living is extremely high, most food has to be imported and a large percentage of adults end up having to work abroad in order to make ends meet.
However, the island’s wallets can only take so much, so the SHFA have set up their own crowdfunding appeal on gofundme.com should anyone living abroad wish to make a donation.
They have set a target of £20,000 for their crowdfunding initiative, and an overall target of £80000 in order to cover the cost of sending their squad to Wales, with a percentage of this to be invested in the island’s infrastructure, such as a set of portable goals and new kit for local youth teams.
The good news is that Saint Helena will definitely be in Wales.
They have booked all flights and accommodation for a squad of 21 and three officials.
And anticipation is building all the time. “Everyone is excited, especially those families who have players going to the tournament,” said Stevens. “Also the junior footballers as they see this as a stepping stone for future tournaments in which they could play in.
“This tournament is immensely important as it will certainly get more youngsters playing football. We are hoping there will be scouts at the tournament who will see our talent and will target St Helena as a potential place to pick up talented youngsters.”
It’s also a boost after suffering disappointment in their bid for FIFA membership.
“We are fighting a losing battle there,” added Stevens. “We have sent numerous applications which have been refused. Small islands like ours desperately need the help of sporting bodies like FIFA as we get limited help from our government for sport, and sport development is being left behind.
“We can’t even apply for help from UK Sport or the lottery. With financial help to go with the raw natural talent we have on the island, our sports persons could do so much better.”