The isolated Pacific nation is trying to build its first football team amid a battle for survival against rising sea levels. It claims to be the last country on Earth without a football team, and to this day, the islands have never hosted an a-side game. Until recently, football was an alien concept in a nation occupied by the US since the second world war, with baseball and basketball the traditional sports. As interest has grown in recent years, another barrier has emerged. Land has always been at a premium on these fragile shores, but never more than now with rising sea levels bringing fears of permanent flooding.
The ocean around these islands has risen by 3. A total rise of one metre would leave the most populous atolls ravaged by permanent inundations; any more than that, and the Marshall Islands could be wiped from the map.
This remote area of the Pacific has a history marked by environmental atrocities. The Marshall Islands were the site of more than 60 US-led nuclear tests between and , with over a third taking place on the most infamous atoll, Bikini. Serious health issues that linger from that era, and the fear of a future blighted by floods, have meant the expatriate population has more than doubled since More Marshallese people now live abroad than at home.
Having read an article about the mission to build the first Marshallese football team, Webb contacted the federation president, Shem Levi, to offer his services for free. Go ahead and do your thing. In each picture posted on social media, scraps of the shirt disappeared in what was a starkly clear message. There are risks from rising tides, storms and flash flooding, and people have to build sea walls outside their homes, to try and protect them. The coaching team divide their overseas trips between Majuro and the small town of Springdale, Arkansas.
As the headquarters of a poultry producer with connections to the islands, it has become the unlikely centre of Marshallese life beyond the Pacific. Sometimes, though, the logistical headaches of football in Oceania have played into their hands. It represents a dramatic change for Webb, whose previous football experience came from coaching in schools and at university, and launching his own team with friends that grew from Sunday league level.
