Micronesia + 2

 

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) are one of the few UN member states that are not FIFA members and are not a member in any of the continental confederations. One reason for that is that the four states that make up the FSM regularly played with state selection, rather than a unified national team. While that might sound unusual, it is actually quite natural, given the four states are a 1000$ flight away from each other and thus very much work independently for most matters, including football.

However, in 2023, my friend Paul Watson was able to organise a Futsal tournament between the four states and used the convening of the four states to re-establish a national FA. The aim of that FA is to join AFC at some point, as the OFC keeps rejecting and ignoring them, despite being a full UN member and technically being in Oceania. One step on that route has been made - in 2024, a FSM national futsal team managed to travel to the Marshall Islands to participate in a threeway tournament with the host and Kiribati, who both are not FIFA members, but full UN member states, too. Now, the bureacracy has to follow to make the FSM football scene finally flourish.

This shirt was not used in a match so far, as far as I know. But buying it for about 40€ each did help raising funds for the FSM FA. So I am more than pleased to have them - especially given how stunningly beautiful they are!