The British overseas territory of St Helena will look to step out of the shadow of the Premier League that hangs over its football culture when they begin their Island Games campaign in Guernsey on Sunday.
The 4,300 inhabitants of the remote South Atlantic island, which lies 1,200 miles from its nearest mainland neighbour South Africa, are more likely to be interested in the results of Arsenal, Chelsea or Liverpool than those of their nascent ‘national team’.
But for the 17 players that have travelled just under 10,000 miles – via Johannesburg, Heathrow and Reading – across three days to fly their flag in the Channel Islands, it will be a chance to remind that there is more to football on the island than broadcasts of matches in England’s top flight.
“I’ve played on the same pitch as Anelka, Cruyff and Schmeichel,” says defender Sam Collins, who moved to the island from the UK in 2022 and is the squad’s only non-native player.
“Those are the first names of three local players. Anelka had Arsenal tattooed up his arm. It’s a strange choice because he wasn’t really a model professional for the club, was he? But people on the island are fanatics about the Premier League.”
The 35-year-old, a social worker by trade, was drawn to football life on the island after reading a report of a match where one team was left with eight players after three were called away on a sea rescue mission. They lost 30-0.
“There’s a rich football culture but not much internet or TV,” he says. “Not to romanticise it, but a lot of the culture is passed on by stories generation to generation. You’ll say of an opponent, ‘He’s a good player isn’t he’, and the response will be, ‘You should have seen his dad play, or his uncle’.”
St Helena have received no formal funding, save for a £5,000 grant awarded by the island’s local government.
The rest has been, in Collins’ words, “begged, borrowed, stolen” to ensure the side can take their place alongside 15 other islands who will compete on Guernsey. Their population is dwarfed by that of the sides they will face.
In recent years, economic pressures have hit the local football ecosystem hard. Young people are increasingly drawn towards leaving the island for better prospects in the UK or the relatively nearby Falklands. From 10 teams as recently as three years ago, the domestic league now struggles to find the players to make six.
All the more reason why sacrifices have been made to make participation in the Island Games a reality.
With a typical weekly wage on the island not much more than £150, players have weighed the financial cost of chipping in against the once in a lifetime chance to compete against footballers from ‘the big world’ as off-island life is known.
“You have to remember how isolated the island is,” says Collins. “We had two leagues, now we’ve got one. We had 10 teams, now we’ve got six. Economic opportunity is better in the UK or in the Falklands.
“I don’t know what it is about sport, but everybody wants to test themselves against somebody else.”
The side kick off their campaign against the Spanish island of Menorca on Sunday before games against Gozo and Jersey.
Competing at the games in Anglesey in 2019, St Helena lost all three matches with a goals-against tally of 17. This time, expectations are for the world’s loneliest football outpost to make a more competitive impression.
“We know we can’t play our football like we play back home,” says Mikee Williams, Collins’ central defensive partner who moved to the island from nearby Ascension in 1998.
“We’re going to have to play like (Premier League winners) Leicester in 2016.
“We saw a very different style to what we were used to in 2019. Players were calm on the ball, playing out from the back, making the right decisions and talking to each other. A lot of our players play with their heads down, there’s not much communication.”
Part of that is borne out of necessity. There is a single pitch of St Helena, high on the hill at Francis Plain. In the past, one goal was invisible from the other owing to an unfortunate slope. The problem was corrected in the 1980s, but infrastructure remains basic and unsafe.
“The pitch is full of rabbit holes,” says Collins. “We get quite serious injuries, dislocated knees or hips, broken ankles. Some people won’t play for that reason. If you’re livelihood depends on it, it’s not worth the risk.
“It’s hard to play on because it’s impossible to anticipate the run of the ball. You can’t open your body and think about your next pass because you’ve got your eye on the ball, waiting for it bounce or bobble.”
Williams adds: “If we had some kind of association with FIFA or some other body, giving us just a little bit of funding, it would make a huge difference. The first thing we would have to look at is infrastructure on the island, to try and limit some of the serious injuries we’ve had.
“Our cricket team get ICC (International Cricket Council) funding. We don’t get anything like that. Our previous chairman tried to have conversation with FIFA, but had no luck. It’s hard for us to raise the kind of money we need for things like competition overseas and infrastructure.”
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Al-Riyadh 0-1 Al-Nassr: Mane hands visitors bragging rights
Sadio Mane's first-half strike ensured Al-Nassr maintained their unbeaten start to the Saudi Pro League season with a 1-0 win over rivals Al-Riyadh.
He smartly finished from close range in the 41st minute, with his goal enough to seal the three points and move Al-Nassr up to third in the table.
Al-Nassr's threat grew as the first half went on, with Milan Borjan making a fine double stop to deny Ronaldo and Talisca once again before Mohamed Simakan struck the post on the rebound.
Mane would eventually break the deadlock in the 41st minute though, darting in front of his marker to meet Abdulrahman Ghareeb's low cross and rifle it into the roof of the net.
The Senegalese striker arguably should have doubled his tally before the break, but was denied by Borjan's stretching save when one-on-one with the Canadian.
Talisca should have wrapped up the points in the final three minutes, but he blazed over an empty net from close range, before having a late goal disallowed for offside.
Data Debrief: Derby delight for Al-Nassr
After drawing their last two matches, this win was a welcome result for Al-Nassr as they racked up their sixth victory of the season to close the gap at the top of the table to six points.
It is just the second time Al-Nassr have avoided defeat in their first 10 matches of a Pro League campaign, last doing so in 2013-14, when they won the league title.
They are now unbeaten in their last seven Pro League derbies (W4 D3), their longest such streak since a run of nine between 2018 and 2020.
This is the first time in eight such games that they have kept a clean sheet though, and limited their opponents to just five shots throughout.
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