The

sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

in the island of

Anguilla Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The terr ...

is run by the

Anguilla Football Association The Anguilla Football Association is the governing body of football in Anguilla. Association staff References External links Anguillaat the FIFA website. at CONCACAF website Anguilla Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territ ...

since their foundation in 1990. The association administers the Anguillian national football teams ( men's and women's), as well as the leagues (

men A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

History

The football association was founded in 1990, but the earliest days of football came with British soldiers in 1969. Football will have been limited in scale by the lack of organisational structure across the period, but it remained a popular sport on the island. They would be admitted to FIFA and

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...

in 1996, opening up further opportunities for footballers from the island. There is evidence of the men's league as early as 1997, though with the national team playing in qualifiers for the

1990 Caribbean Cup The 1990 Caribbean Cup (known as the Shell Caribbean Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the second edition of the Caribbean Cup, the football championship of the Caribbean, one of the CONCACAF zones. The final stage was hosted by Trinidad and Toba ...

, it seems likely that an informal league was in place before then. Youth national teams have played at all levels. While men's football had largely been the focus, women's football started to develop in the early 2000's, with the first registered players coming through in 2003, expanding up to a 5-team league by 2006. The women's national team and national league both formed in that period, with unofficial internationals and the earliest days of the league in 2003. A full sized league and fully recognised internationals would follow in 2004. Youth national matches would also occur across this period. Aside from a gap in international matches due to

Chikungunya Chikungunya is an infection caused by the ''Chikungunya virus'' (CHIKV). Symptoms include fever and joint pains. These typically occur two to twelve days after exposure. Other symptoms may include headache, muscle pain, joint swelling, and a ra ...

virus, both continue to this day.

Controversies

In 2012, Raymond Guishard, president of the Anguilla Football Association, was suspended by FIFA from all activity related to football for 45 days. This was because of his involvement in the

Caribbean Football Union corruption scandal The Caribbean Football Union corruption scandal involved attempted bribery used to win the votes of national football associations from the Caribbean Football Union in the 2011 FIFA presidential election. The bribes were offered on 20 May 2011, a ...

the year prior. At the same time, disputes were ongoing between the AFA and several clubs over youth development programs and overseas recruiting. As such, Guishard did not explain his suspension to the AFA, nor did the clubs have any information on the AFA's financial reports for the last several years. Unbeknownst to them, the AFA had received upwards of $3.5 million USD in funds from FIFA between 2000 and 2010, yet only managed to play 17 international games, making it one of the most inactive teams in the world. In 2015, Anguilla finally played its first full international game on the island, even though a $700,000 stadium had been built more than five years prior with money from international grants.

League system

References

{{League systems