THE FALKLANDS V ENGLAND

I was alerted to the England "C" National XI venture to the Falkland Islands recently, by one of my vast number of readers, an international match which was played on November 10th and 11th at Stanley, next to the Government House and Community school.
Paul Fairclough, the ex-Liverpool star, manages this squad which consisted of players from Hertford Town, Northwood FC, St Paul's Jersey, Bracknell Town, Hanwell Town, Reading City, Basildon Utd, Leverstock Green, Bury Town, Didcot Town, Buxton, Barking, Chalfont St Peters and Witham Town; not too many northern players here?
The squad played against the Falkland Islands team on the 10th and a Combined Services Military Police on Sunday 11th.

The squad also held coaching sessions at the Community school and at the Islands' local Junior and Infant schools at Mt Pleasant.
Chair of the FA Representative Matches, Andrew Shaw, arranged the goodwill visit to the islands and the armed forces.
The squad also attended a remembrance service at the capital's Christchurch Cathedral on the 11th.


The Falklands have had organised soccer since 1892 when the first official game was played between the British Defence Force and the Domestic Volunteers.
Stanley FC was formed in 1916, a National XI was first brought together after the Second World War and the locals eventually gathered together to form a League which today includes the C&R Construction FC, Fire FC, Teenage Mutant Ninjas Skrtles, the Green Island Falcons, Home Bankers amongst 8 clubs. The military sides tended to be too strong for the local teams and it was the West Yorkshire Rgt that featured as most successful.

In this modern day, the Falkland Islands Football League, known as the The Stanley Services LTD is not a member of CONMEBOL, the governance of South American football, due to the issues over the sovereignty of the Islands and Argentina.

The Islands, represented by Stanley FC, therefore only have The NatWest Island Games to compete in and in 2013 they earned a third place medal. In 2017 they played in Gotland against the Isle of Man, Hitra and Yns Mon (guess where they're from)-losing all three matches and playing out a final match against Alderney, which was lost 0-3 to earn 16th place.

Distance and cost limit the number of times the Islands can honour the invitation to the play in such tournaments. Those who get picked include mainly locals but four Englishman were included; Sam Toolan of Worthing Utd U18, Joshua Ennis of Sheffield Utd, Ethan Gilson-Clarke from  Cheltenham Town FC academy and Daniel Briggs-unattached. One other "foreigner" was from Bangkok!