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The Lands that FIFA Forgot
by Steve Menary
Know the Score, £16.99

Reviewed by Jonathan Wilson
From WSC 253 March 2008 

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Every country, Henry Kissinger once said, needs an army, a bank and a football team. Many of the countries discussed in Outcasts don’t have an army or a bank. Many aren’t even countries, at least not in the traditional sense. And yet all are desperate for a football team that would somehow give them legitimacy. When Tibet played Greenland in a friendly in Copenhagen, who did not see it as a strike against the Chinese authorities who would deny them statehood? And yet there is a sense in which Greenland are rather more wronged than Tibet, at least in terms of FIFA’s refusal to acknowledge them as a member.

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There is a world outside of FIFA. Steve Menary reports on plans for a world cup of "non-countries"

The breakaway republic of Northern Cyprus is set to host the first ever world cup for nations that don’t exist. Recognised only by Turkey, which invaded the Mediterranean island in 1974, Northern Cyprus will host the 16-team Viva World Cup in November 2006.

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Sierra Leone and Liberia are not favourites to qualify from African World Cup Group B, but as Alan Duncan reports, just being there is an achievement

It’s a tough job being secretary general of any Football Association. Worse still if you are administering the footballing fortunes of a little-known, war-torn African country. Alimu Bah, the secretary general of the Sierra Leone FA, has had much to contend with since the start of his tenure in 1996. Coups, counter-coups, death threats, a rebel invasion and the recurring ills of African football: poor infrastructure, lack of funds and a less then perfect organisational structure.

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From the local chippy to class hotels, Firoz Kassam has been a success in business. Martin Brodestsky evaluates his time as chairman of Oxford United

Distinguishing features Kassam is a self-made multi-millionaire, with three hotels in London, and he has just received planning permission for another one in Oxford. Kassam came to England from Tanzania as a teenager and worked his way up from the local chippy until he got to where he is now – with money to waste on a no-hope lower division football club with delusions of grandeur.

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