Eriati Reebo is a man in a hurry. He is the president of the Kiribati Island Football Federation (KIFF), and he wants his country to play a FIFA World Cup qualifier before it disappears underwater. The worst-case scenario is that Kiribati, an archipelago of 32 atolls and islands in the Pacific, could be submerged by rising sea levels as soon as 2050, while the United Nations has warned it could happen by 2100.
"Our mission is to join FIFA and play in the Oceania confederation alongside our neighbors Fiji, New Caledonia and American Samoa," Reebo told ESPN. "We want to play football, but it's also part of raising awareness by using football to show the world that we have a difficult situation, especially on climate change."
Kiribati, a former British colony that secured its independence in 1979, is located roughly halfway between Hawai'i and Australia. With an estimated population close to 140,000 people, the island nation has a 16-team league with games played at the Bairiki National Stadium, a 2,500-capacity ground with a sand pitch.
Kiribati has been an associate member of Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) since 2007 and cannot secure FIFA membership until it is accepted as a full member of OFC. Reebo is confident they will soon be accepted. "We are a three-hour flight to Fiji and, from Fiji, it is four hours to Sydney, Australia," Reebo said. "It's not a problem, so there's no doubt that we'll be in the OFC soon and also in FIFA."
Source: ESPN Soccer · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing