Székely Land 2014-16 Home

A plain Macron template, not much to say here. It is a very nice shade of blue and has a few transfer details, but otherwise isn’t too interesting. The shirt also is crisscrossed with a grid pattern, akin to one of the older Adidas templates or graph paper, depending on how mathematical your background is. Also, that one of the transfers is essentially the Hungarian FA logo is a nice touch.

Form what I can find, this design was used from the start of their CONIFA journey, with appearances in the 2015 Euros and the 2016 World Football Cup. A 3-2 loss to the County of Nice and 3-1 to Hungarian comrades Felvidék knocked them out of the Euros with a 3-0 loss to Kurdistan and 1-0 to United Koreans in japan did the same in the 2016 World Football Cup. Unfortunately, a less than stellar start for them.

Despite this inauspicious start, Székely Land are a reasonable force in CONIFA. The 2017 Euros brought them a 3^rd place, with a draw against eventual champions Padania and a win against regular contenders Ellan Vannin (Isle of Man) took them into the semi-finals where a narrow loss to Northern Cyprus left them to beat Abkhazia to seal their 3^rd place. The 2018 World Football Cup brought easy victories against Tuvalu, Matabeleland and Western Armenia. However, they lost to Padania in the groups, lost to them on penalties for 4^th place and did lose in the semi-finals to another Hungarian minority team, Kárpátalja. 2019 only brought a single draw and they didn’t qualify for 2020 though, so their performances are fairly variable.

With women’s football fairly new in CONIFA, they don’t have a team yet, and with their fall in 2019, it is tricky to predict how they’ll perform going on from now.

Falkland Islands 2020- Home
Falkland Islands 2020- Away

Let’s start off with the home shirt. Blue sash on a red background, though with partial white stripes outlining it for some of the length. Collar and most of the sleeves are white to stand out nicely, though . Badge and logo are fully embroidered and look good, with the Hope & Glory logo outlined in black to stand out nicely. The rear of the shirt could perhaps be a little more subtle than the giant Union Jack, but it does look ok and the sponsors aren’t too in your face, being on the back and the sleeves. I can’t say I’m 100% keen, but who could say no to a Falklands home shirt?

The away shirt is a lot more restrained, with some collar and sleeve accenting, as well as an identification strip and flag on the rear (and the dog high up!). Frontal sponsor isn’t as good, but the deep blue of the whole shirt feels refined. A more sober design, but a very nice one for it and probably the design I prefer.

One of the smallest, and definitely the furthest travelled, sides in the Island Games, the Falkland Islands aren’t always able to compete due to the costs involved. They’ve therefore never sent a women’s side. Typically competing in a number of friendlies against sides from Navy ships, the Island Games provide stiff competition. In 2005 they finished 9^th, their highest finish excepting their 3^rd in the 4-team 2013 games, and they typically place slightly above the bottom, taking victories from the likes of Orkney, Saare County, Hitra, Alderney and Frøya. Having attended every official football tournament at the games since 2009, they’re expected back at 2021 in these new kits to once more compete on one of the greatest non-FIFA stages.

Chagos Islands 2016 Home, matchworn/prepared
Chagos Islands 2019- Home

What I like about this design is that it is simple, but enough effort went into it to show that there was genuine care. Yes, the division of black and orange feels somewhat arbitrary around the shoulders and the collar seems unusually deep, but the national colours are used. Then, the detail which makes the shirt, the blue wave down the front. It adds in the 3^rd colour from the flag, represents the sea around the islands and solidifies the shirt as truly Chagossian. It is basic, but it does what it needs to correctly.

Used across the 2016 World Football Cup, the Chagos Islands were drawn in a group with the hosts, Abkhazia, and Western Armenia. Their opening match was a 9-0 defeat to the home side, with Western Armenia following that up with 12 the very next day. Hardly brimming with confidence, they’d fall into the placement matches to face Somaliland. A narrow 3-2 loss improved matters, with them ending in the 11^th place play-off against Raetia. A 3-3 draw would lead to a penalty shootout loss, but their form across the placements was much more promising.

First off, wow, that’s a lot of colours. Second off: wow, that’s a lot of potential kit clashes. Regardless, there’s a lovely gradient effect across the front of the shirt from dark orange to deep blue, somewhat akin to the flag, and made up of a grid of circles, with some transference across each boundary. Makes for a very nice effect. The FA logo stands out, but not too starkly and, like the Hope & Glory Sportswear logo, is fully embroidered. The black sleeves and collar stand out nicely, though the sleeves have some of the orange across them too, to prevent them being too plain (though the CONIFA markings helps with that). Last, but very much not least, the back of the shirt has, in all the colours from the front, the layout of Diego Garcia, the main island in the Chagossian archipelago. There’s a lot to this shirt and it is very hard to criticise.

The shirt was used across the end of 2019, in a series of friendlies, including a 3-1 victory against a charity side, as well as a 4-1 loss to Surrey and a 6-0 loss to CONIFA titans Panjab. In general, these results typify the Chagos Islands’ results, with the majority of their games being losses. However, as shown by their spirit (and their supporters), the results matter less than their cause, which is highly admirable.

With them replacing Ellan Vaninn for friendly games at the 2018 CONIFA WFC, they’ve technically attended 2 editions of the tournament, with the 2016 edition providing a very difficult group stage but two closely contested placement matches. In 2018, as a team not technically part of the tournament, they couldn’t advance to higher rounds, but were only narrowly edged by Matabeleland 1-0 and lost 6-1 to a Tuvalu side seeking their first win after their own previous narrow loss. As well, they’ve played in a number of small friendly tournaments, though their nearby neighbours tend to be the victors, with victories rare due to the strength of the sides around them. Surrey have provided fairly active opposition, with several closely competitive matches held between the pair.

Active in friendlies since they left CONIFA, the non-FIFA scene has quietened somewhat and the Chagossians don’t have a regular schedule for matches.

United Arab Emirates 2010 Away
United Arab Emirates 2010 Away

A little plain in colour but otherwise Errea really smashed this one out the park. Red highlighting down one side is accented by a glorious pattern tracing down from the badge to the bottom of the shirt. Similarly, the pattern is duplicated on the opposite sleeve, to add to it. This is highlighted on one shirt with the red sleeve, the other main difference being the UAE mark in the front pattern. The black stitching is a little ugly though, and the Errea logo is sublimated, which is particularly terrible when contrasted with the dual material FA badge. Nonetheless, a great design.

This design is particularly unusual as it was one of several very similar designs (as you can see!) across a very short period, including the 2010 Asian Games. In general there was a lot of variety including what appears to have been a change of shirts (which changed the colour of one sleeve) midway through the final! In the games they won their group on goal difference, beating Bangladesh and Uzbekistan 3-0 but drawing 1-1 with Hong Kong. Then they dispatched “Athletes from Kuwait” 2-0 and North Korea 9-8 on penalties after a 0-0 draw before edging South Korea 1-0 in the semi-final to lose by the same scoreline to Japan in the final.

UAE are one of the better teams in Asia, though they’ve struggled to make a significant impact in competitive tournaments. They reached the 1990 World Cup, despite 4 draws from 5 games in the final 6 team group, and lost all 3 games by an aggregate of 11-2. They’ve reached a few final round, the play-offs for 2002 and finished a position too low for 2018. When hosting the 1996 Asian Cup, they reached the final and have reached 3 other semi-finals but lost them all. They only didn’t qualify in 2000. They’ve twice won the Gulf Cup and been in the top 3 ten times in total. They have won several friendly tournaments but, being invitational, are likely to contain similarly ranked teams.

Their women’s side has been active for longer than you might expect, winning the 2010 and 2011 WAFF Women’s Championship, but their results since then have been poor. They’ve won a handful of friendlies with success against the Maldives in particular, but suffered terribly in the 2019 WAFF Women’s Championship and were 3 points adrift of qualification for the 2018 Women’s Asian Cup after 2 heavy defeats to the qualificants. Their men’s youth teams have had a little more success than the senior side, with a 2^nd and 3^rd in the Asian Games, a poor Olympics performance, the 2008 U19 Asian title, 2 U20 World Cup quarter-finals and 3 U17 World Cup qualifications showing a solid basis. Their women’s youth sides have grabbed a handful of competitive wins but not played regularly. In general their results have been poor though. 4 qualification attempts, mainly at U16 level and the best they’ve done is 2 wins from 4.

Their futsal side has not been either terribly active or terribly successful, but did play at the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship as hosts, where they beat Turkmenistan but fell to Thailand and Kyrgyzstan. They did fairly well at the 2017 U20 Championship but missed out on the knockout stages by a point. In beach soccer with six top 4s from nine tournaments, they are a force to be reckoned with. They won in 2007 and 2008 and reached the last 2 finals while also having a gold, silver and a bronze at different Asian Beach games. 6 World Cup qualifications have only brought 4 wins though.

With 2 wins from 4 and a tough group, the UAE have their work cut out trying to qualify for 2022. They won’t be expected to make it but probably want to reach the third round at least…

IR Iran 2019 Home

This one’s an interesting material, look sort of bobbled all over, definitely adds to the look. Then you have rubber uhlsport logos, patterns down the sides and on the shoulders and you have a reasonable shirt. The transfer badge could be improved and the sleeves are a little bare but it would be respectable nonetheless. They could’ve stopped at that. They didn’t. A giant leopard’s head dominates the lower half of the shirt, adding a nice personalised touch for Team Melli and putting the shirt amongst the greats.

As far as I can find, the senior side only wore this once, against Hong Kong in 2022 World Cup qualification. They then transferred across to a subtly different kit with flower patterns down the sides for the rest of their games. A 2-0 away win against Hong Kong proved to be a good start to what has continued as a disappointing campaign. A 14-0 home win against Cambodia was followed by consecutive away losses to Bahrain and rivals Iraq leaving them outside of even a play-off chance in 3^rd with 4 games to go.

The Iranians are titans of the Asian game, with 5 World Cup appearances (4 from the last 6 tournaments) and typically superb qualifying records. 3 Asian Cups is dented slightly by them reaching only semi-finals at best since 1976 (though they’ve done that 6 times) and they hold a number of other titles including 3 senior Asian Games and 4 WAFF Championships. A powerful, defensive side, they have struggled more on the global stage, with only 2 wins from 15 World Cup Games.

The women’s national side struggles a bit more, with 3 2^nd places in WAFF competition being the highlight. Generally they’ve been middle of the pack, better than the bottom end of the spectrum, but suffering against the established nations. The men’s youth sides have some success to their name, but fall some distance short of the consistency of the senior side. The 2002 Asian Games and 2015 WAFF U23 Championship, 3 U20 World Cup appearances, 4 AFC U19 Championships, 4 U17 World Cup appearances  and 3 WAFF U16 finals show some sides with competency, but the success is short lived. The women’s youth sides have a 2015 AFC U19 Asian Cup appearance to their name but are still short of the big sides.

We return to them being truly terrifying in futsal and beach soccer. Men’s women’s and U20 men’s futsal sides have won almost every Asian competition they’ve participated in. The first exception is the Grand Prix de Futsal, which includes South American sides, where they’ve always been top 4 and typically only been contested by Colombia or Brazil. The second is the women’s Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games where they’ve come from 2^nd to 4^th across 4 tournaments. The men have a 3^rd and a 4^th place in their World Cup and the women have two 7ths and a 5^th. They aren’t quite as good at beach soccer, winning a lower percentage of titles, but still finished top 3 from 22 of 25 non world Cup tournaments. 3 knockout stage appearances and a 3^rd place cement their World Cup status too.

Despite a poor start, Iran are still expected to qualify for the 2022 World Cup and it would be a big shock if they did not. They’ve got to pick up though and have a definite task ahead of them.

Yemen 2019- Home

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh sorry, is there a shirt to talk about? A plain Jako shirt with no redeeming features. Ironed on Jako and FA logos and nothing else beyond red. Dull, uninteresting and low quality, this is the sad reality of smaller, poorer teams, particularly when shirt design is about as low as things could be on their priority list. You can’t help but feel that someone at Jako could’ve tried somewhere though?

This design was used at the 2019 Asian Cup, though it has also been used in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers to date, due to hinted at circumstances. In what could be considered their tournament debut (they are considered the successor team of North Yemen, not South Yemen who made an appearance at the 1976 edition), their only objective was to avoid humiliation. A 5-0 loss to Iran, 3-0 to Iraq and 2-0 to Vietnam in a very tough group was a reasonable outcome considering their significant lack of preparation and losses back home. Their 2022 qualification group is very tough and a loss and a draw to Singapore won’t be enough for them. However, a 2-2 draw with Saudi Arabia and a 1-0 win over Palestine show that the skill and drive that got them to the 2019 Asian Cup are still there.

Their Asian Cup qualification came as a big shock, not just because of the civil war, but because Yemen have always been among the poorer sides in Asia and because they’d only gained 3 points in 8 points in the earlier round. Their best World Cup qualification campaign (2002) only involved 3 wins from 6 games (two of those against Brunei), though they were very close to a spot in the final qualifying round, and they’d never managed more than 7 points in Asian Cup qualifying (from 6 games). In the various Arabic nations tournaments their best finish came in the 2010 WAFF Championship, where a win against Palestine and a loss to Iraq placed them in a semi-final spot. A loss on penalties to eventual winners Kuwait knocked them out and otherwise their record has largely been losses.

South Yemen, across the 24 years or so they existed, didn’t play much football. They did well at the 1976 Pan Arab Games, finishing 4^th out of 7 and qualified for the 1976 Asian Cup (albeit automatically due to withdrawals). A 1-0 loss to Iraq was heartening but the subsequent 8-0 loss to eventual winners Iran showed that South Yemen weren’t going to be challenging for titles anytime soon.

No Yemeni women’s side has ever played a FIFA international, much like several of their Arabic counterparts. Their men’s youth teams, however, regularly qualify for their respective Asian Cups. They do typically lose all or most of their games, but there are a few standout results. The U23s beat Vietnam at the 2002 Asian Games and the U17s stormed the 2002 Championship. They beat Vietnam and Pakistan, with a 2-2 draw to South Korea in between. Syria and China fell in the knockout stages before another draw (1-1) against South Korea which they sadly lost on penalties. 2^nd place took them to the World Cup where a narrow loss to Portugal, a late draw with Cameroon and a 3-0 loss to Brazil sent them home.

No futsal or beach soccer sides have ever played for Yemen, undoubtedly due to the circumstances in the country.

As mentioned, Yemen are falling short of the third round for 2022 World Cup qualification in trying circumstances. But, they’ll hope for repeated redemption in the Asian Cup qualifiers and have continually surprised regardless.

Shetland 2012-13 Home

Let’s kick off with a Stanno shirt! A blue centre contained by the white spreading across the shoulders and down the sides from the sleeves. Black accenting on the collar, sleeve cuffs and hem help to add a minor additional dimension to the shirt too. The logo and rear flag are very detailed stitching, though parts of the shirt are slightly misaligned. Very nice to look at, but slightly misses on a few minor points. As an international shirt, with the side not attending the Island Games, it was only used in the 2013 Milne Cup where Shetland thrashed Orkney 4-1, in the largest victory in the competition since 2007.

In general, Shetland are fairly good. They have the lead in Milne Cups against Orkney, defeating their neighbours 53 times and losing only 33 (over 90 games with 4 shared) and tend to also perform better in the Island Games. Rarely challenging the top teams, they did managed 4^th at the 2019 Inter Games and the 2015 Island Games. Their peak definitely came in the 2005 Island Games though. They hosted the games and won the men’s football tournament, remaining undefeated by beating the likes of Guernsey and the Isle of Man with only Saaremaa making them drop points.

Sadly the Shetland women’s team has only appeared at the home games, due to the cost of travel, and a 2-2 draw against Guernsey was the only highlight in a last place finish. With the games coming to Orkney in 2025, maybe they’ll make a return?

Typically the dominant island power in Scotland, Shetland will look to maintain their place and will be looking for a good finish at the 2023 games, though it remains unlikely that they’ll compete for another medal.

Northern Mariana Islands 2019- Home
Northern Mariana Islands 2019- Away

Two fairly different and striking designs here. Both shirts make good use of accenting, the sleeves, shoulders, collar and sides all stand out for some good colour variety. The CNMIs badge is a transfer one, though the FAT logo is embroidered on. Possibly helps to make the manufacturer stand out a little more as the FA logo is quite large? The home shirt has a nice variety of blues and is covered in diagonal sashes that are intermittent. Actually makes for quite a nice pattern and, more importantly, continues front and back. The away is a little simpler, 3 vertical and narrow stripes splitting near the base but looks a little less busy for it. Comparatively plain but still an interesting enough design.

These shirts have been used across the 2020 AFC U16 Championship qualification, an attempt that could’ve gone better… A 7-0 loss to the Philippines was followed up by a 5-1 loss to Brunei. However, they then had to face the two powerhouses of the group, Indonesia and China. A goal against Indonesia would prove to be scant consolation, conceding 15 goals in both games.

Sadly, these results were not atypical for the CNMIs. The senior men’s squad has 1 win (against Macau) and 2 draws (1 against Macau and a friendly against Guam) in their history. They don’t regularly play, as they are not eligible for the World Cup and those qualifiers are intertwined with the Asian Cup qualifiers. Their only source of games comes from the EAFF Championship where they play in the qualifying stage. They’ve played Guam, Macau, Mongolia and Chinese Taipei but finished bottom every time, though once on goal difference alone. They did try to qualify for the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup, but lost all 3 games (6-0 to Nepal, 9-0 to Palestine and 4-0 to Bangladesh).

The pattern continues on the women’s side, with the senior side only having the equivalent championship. However, they have 3 draws to their name and even a 7-0 demolition of Macau, with the contest between the bottom three nations in particular being much closer.  They have never qualified for the second round though. Youth football has been sporadic, due to costs, and because of their small population, it has not proved a successful outlet. The senior teams tend to include very young and old players due to “soccer” not being the primary sport of the islands so pure youth teams tend to suffer. 10 goals scored and 387 conceded across 36 games is not a record that makes for nice reading. Again, the women’s sides tend to perform slightly better but have narrowly missed out on even a single draw with a 2-1 loss to Malaysia for the U16s being the closest result. The U19 men also have had a 4-3 loss to Brunei. Friendlies against Guam have gone better though.

No beach soccer or futsal squads appear to have played internationally, again there are struggles with funding and the AFC competitions requiring IOC or FIFA recognition.

No matter what, the CNMIs will continue. They aren’t doing fantastically, but they are improving and getting some help from the EAFF and the AFC. Expect to see more gradual improvement but there are no quick fixes at this level and FIFA aren’t interested in them to give them funding. Basketball remains their #1 sport.

Greenland 2013 Home
Greenland 2013 Away

Both shirts are simple, a plain colour, with accenting on the shoulder in the second colour. Beyond that, only the colour and the Umbro marking at the bottom really stand out. A transfer badge and a similar flag on the back with an embroidered Umbro badge is all you get. However, the alternating colour scheme of the GBU logo is a very nice touch. No, there isn’t much to the shirts and, despite liking the team, I can’t claim to be overly impressed. They aren’t an easy team to find though and it is far from the worst template in the world.

This design was used in the 2013 Island Games in Bermuda for both the men’s and women’s teams. While Greenland achieved 2 silver medals, there were only 4 and 3 teams participating respectively. The men’s team lost 3-0 to full FIFA member Bermuda before getting a chance for revenge by annihilating Frøya and the Falkland Islands 12-0 and 9-0. This qualified them for the final against Bermuda where they lost 1-0 to a late penalty. The women’s team lost 5-1 to Bermuda before beating Hitra 3-1. Amusingly, this qualified them for the semi-final, against Hitra. They duly beat them 2-1 to play Bermuda once more and lost 5-4 on penalties after a 0-0 draw.

While hard to base a performance on such a small set of games, Greenland do tend to be fairly successful at the Island Games. They’ve rarely been able to bring all their players due to work commitments at home but have another silver from 2017, 3 4^th places finishes and haven’t been in the bottom 3 since 2005. Always competing, they’re never a team to write off completely. They also hosted 3 Greenland Cups in the 80’s, playing against both Iceland and the Faroe Islands. While some games were very close, they nonetheless only achieved a single draw. The FIFI Wild Cup and ELF cups also failed to provide success, though a win and a draw from 5 games against the likes of a Kyrgyz selection, Northern Cyprus and Zanzibar is to be respected.

The women’s side surprised in 2011 by finishing 3^rd, edging the Western Isles 1-0 and annihilating Gibraltar 8-0 but otherwise have been towards the lower end of the middle of the pack. They’ve never been in the last place play-off and, as with the men, can’t ever be written off, though they’ve generally been a little less successful. Youth sides can’t compete internationally due to the lack of funding and extreme costs of travel.

Unsurprisingly, beach soccer hasn’t really caught on in the country that doesn’t really have any sand and where it regularly reaches deep into the negative temperatures. On the other hand, futsal is a successful sport and the national side has played predominantly in the Nordic Futsal Cup. They’ve beaten Norway and Denmark and had a draw against those two as well, but have always finished bottom, albeit twice on goal difference alone. The Futsal Week Autumn Cup brought a 6^th place finish too, but 6-5 and 6-4 are close results against Belgium and Saudi Arabia.  Considering the vast population differences, they are definitely skilled.

The level of facilities in the country mean they cannot currently join FIFA and, despite their comparative autonomy, UEFA will not accept them as they are not sufficiently independent of Denmark. Nevertheless, it is a pleasure to see them play and I wish them the best of luck in their further development as an association.

Alderney Home 2019

Fairly plain, with a white trim and black sleeves to accent a deep blue shirt. Works really quite well and the embroidered VSN and Alderney badges stand out nicely and should last well. They’re strangely stitched onto solid patches but it works. I’m no fan of sponsors, we’re talking international football here, but Alderney Shipping is, at least, on brand and have a similar colour scheme. The line map of Alderney on the back is also a nice touch so overall comes out as a positive.

Alderney is a bit strange in that this is the shirt of the club side that competes in the Guernsey Priaulx League as well as the national side who are the same thing. They wore this shirt to come 2nd in the league, after a season-long battle with St Martins AC as well as in the 2019 Muratti and at the 2019 Inter Games. In the Muratti they hit their 99th year without a win, with a 2-0 loss to Jersey, though in fairness their population is much smaller. In the modern era, the games remain close, but still losses. A 4-2 loss to Hitra in the pouring rain and a 7-1 thrashing by the Isle of Man set them up in a placement game against Orkney at the Inter Games where a rare win let them finish 7th! A respectable 3-2 loss in the semi-final of the inter-island Wheway Cup capped a good season.

In general Alderney are the minnow of Channel Islands football. 1 win in the 115 year history of the Muratti Vase back in 1920 (it was in the final though!) hardly reflects the effort they’ve put in to join the big rivalry of Jersey and Guernsey. Results have improved massively in recent years but they’re still falling short. The Island Games have provided some much needed wins, but they aren’t common, and the nomads continue on as one of football’s most persistent minnows.

They’ll be expected at the 2021 Island Games, with Guernsey providing a familiar backdrop. Can they take a few wins under their belts?