Whatever happened to Wallis & Futuna? – Football in Oceania

Guest writer Adam Beaumont examines what has happened to football on one of Oceania’s smallest territories, Wallis & Futuna.

By: Adam Beaumont

The small French Pacific territory of Wallis & Futuna is one of the more unusual footballing stories and there remains some mystery to this day.

As a national team they were fairly active, with 6 Pacific Games appearances, and some thoroughly competitive results against the usual preliminary round sides (American Samoa, Samoa, Cook Islands, and Tonga). However, despite some promising signs, the sport seemed to fall apart on the islands, with their national team not being seen since 1995 and limited local evidence of football at all. So, what happened?

Brief introduction to Wallis & Futuna

The territory of Wallis & Futuna consists primarily of 3 islands between Samoa and Fiji. These are Wallis, Futuna and Alofi, along with numerous smaller islands around Wallis. Wallis is around 140 miles from the other two islands, with the mainly uninhabited Alofi next to Futuna. Divided into 3 kingdoms, Wallis and its surrounding islands are the kingdom of Uvea, with Sigave and Alo splitting Futuna (Alofi comes under Alo). They became a French protectorate in the mid-1800’s, before their formal annexation in 1917. Originally part of New Caledonia, they split off in 1961 and later changed status to an overseas collectivity in 2003.

With a population of around 11,000, comparable to associate member Tuvalu and full member Cook Islands, Wallis and Futuna would be a very small OFC or FIFA member. With a significant diaspora in New Caledonia (~21,000) and a small one in Metropolitan France, this would bring them above Tuvalu but smaller than any other OFC member or associate (Cook Islands have a much larger diaspora). In terms of broader classification, this places them towards the bottom end of FIFA members’ populations, with the likes of San Marino, but above that of Montserrat.

What is their footballing history?

As with the other French territories, football came across with their colonisers. Exactly when the sport began on the islands is hard to determine, however. Definitely active in the 1960’s, their representative team would appear for the first time at the 1966 South Pacific Games, but neither match would go well and they wouldn’t return for over a decade.

Their return came in 1979, in a 12-team Games, still the joint largest to date! Only needing 2^nd place in a 3 team group to progress, Wallis and Futuna started things off with a 6-0 loss to the Solomon Islands. However, this will have brought confidence for their second match, facing Samoa (then Western Samoa), as their opponents had let in 12 to the same opposition. A 3-1 win sealed their progression, although it would pit them against the hosts, Fiji. Despite reaching the quarter-finals, they weren’t exactly regarded well, with the Papua New Guinea Post Courier saying “Fiji get the Wallis and Futuna lambs to slaughter.” A 5-0 loss would prove that the Fijians were indeed a step too far, but it was far from the most uneven scoreline at the Games.

This would be followed up by 4 more consecutive full Games appearances, up until their last (to date) in 1995. Despite this, they would not attend either Mini Games football tournament in 1981 or 1993.

1983 would replicate their previous success, with a 4-0 quarter-finals exit to big brothers New Caledonia. Their group stage proved successful, however, with 2 wins from 3 matches to top the group. The group was a weak one, consisting of both Samoas and Tonga, with American Samoa beating the French islanders to open things up. A narrow win over Samoa and a more comfortable one over Tonga, combined with results elsewhere, proved enough for them.

However, past this point things deteriorated. While they’d finish in 5^th in 1987, there would only be 6 teams playing. The team they’d better was American Samoa, their 5-1 victory also accounting for the Samoans only goal of the Games… Additionally, their other matches were, while not disastrous, fairly comfortable for their opponents.

1991 and 1995 would prove to be the territory’s last two Games for football, as well as their worst performances. It was a tough group in 1991, but they would only register a single goal while conceding 13 across the three matches. They’d similarly lose all four matches in 1995, with the narrow 2-1 loss to the Cook Islands being the sole bright spot sandwiched by 3 defeats of over 10 goals each.

Sources on the island suggest at this point that an overarching administrative change moved coaches away from the sport and restructured them into office based roles. This acted as a serious blow to football. Two crucial additional blows would strike in the same decade. Firstly, despite holding full AFC and FIFA membership for 3 years, Guam would not host a football tournament at the 1999 South Pacific Games. Secondly, Rugby Union would stop being a core sport at the Pacific Games and would be replaced by the smaller scale Rugby Sevens.

While full scale Rugby Union had previously appeared between 1963 and 1995, it was broadly unpopular and had few entrants. Wallis and Futuna had participated in early editions but stopped playing, with similar behaviour widespread. The smaller squads required for 7s made it easier and cheaper for nations to participate, with the inaugural edition bringing 10 teams in, well in excess of the 2 that managed full Rugby Union in 1995. Wallis and Futuna had played in the 1966, 1969, 1971 and 1979 editions of the Rugby Union and the more accessible version of a sport they’d initially preferred was possibly the death knell of their representative football.

It is easy then to see how football fell by the wayside, though published evidence is extremely limited. The next clear mention of football came in 2009, after rugby had openly taken the sporting crown on the islands. Then OFC Secretary Tai Nicholas admitted that the confederation had tried to contact Wallis and Futuna with respect to football and possible associate membership. However, a lack of an extant phone number stifled them and there are no further records on attempted contact or even what state football was in on the islands at that point.

On the other hand, Wallis and Futuna’s rugby would go from strength to strength. Their results would start and remain fairly poor, staying towards the bottom of the Pacific Games, but it helped to drive other engagement. At some point France started to notice the prevalence of rugby on the islands and how they might benefit from it. Players with heritage from the island were achieving caps in 2008 (and some may have done so earlier), with New Caledonian rugby dominated by Wallisian and Futunan immigrants as well. The current French rugby side utilises several players either directly from the islands or descended from islanders and this strong connection has only built upon rugby’s local stranglehold on sport.

In the modern day, football has largely disappeared entirely, with some 11-a-side matches remaining by 2015 and vaguer evidence of 7-a-side in 2017. 2017 also brought about the AJFU, a youth football association in Uvea only. The AJFU described football and futsal in particular as “resuming,” with formal association with broader French sporting bodies (UFOLEP) in 2020. Membership remained limited with other sources stating that there was “not much football on the islands” in 2024.

Conclusion

A number of factors led to the downfall of football on the islands: a low population, a focus on rugby, administrative changes, and unfortunate timing of respective tournaments all contributed. Much like their Polynesian brethren, rugby dominates the islands and football’s opportunity to return seems limited.

With slow progress in the modern era, it seems likely that football will hold a place as a minor sport, but that Wallis and Futuna’s opportunities in the broader football space are long since past.

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This article was written by Adam Beaumont. You can find Adam on X/Twitter here.

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