Anguilla is a British colony situated in the Caribbean. The Anguilla national football team are one of the lowest ranked teams in the world. The country’s main island is only 16 miles long and three miles wide. With such a small base of players to call on they often resort to picking eligible players from semi-professional teams in and around London. Anguilla has other islands but they do not have a fixed population.
One of the problems faced by the Anguilla Football Association is the fact that football is not the national sport of the country. It falls behind boat racing, cricket and even rugby. With the proximity of the West Indies and their love of cricket, it will be difficult for football to grow.
The first world cup Anguilla entered was Japan and South Korea in 2002. They played the Bahamas in a play-off, losing the first leg at home 3-1 but improving to only lose the second 2-1 away. While the second leg only had 330 spectators, the first had a crowd of 3000.
The Anguilla national football team are still very new to the world cup competition but will be disappointed that since their first attempt in 2002, where they scored 2 goals, they have been unable to score a single goal in the following three attempts.