Curaçao made its debut at the World Cup despite not being a sovereign state.
The official status of the island is “an autonomous state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands”. That is, Curaçao has its own constitution, government, laws, but all this is within the sovereignty of Amsterdam.
There are still many similar territories around the Caribbean Sea, and almost all of them are also competing for a place at the World Cup.
All except French Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guiana.
Why?
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Pragmatism rules not only politics, but also football.
Curaçao’s debut at the 2026 World Cup highlighted the situation in the Caribbean Sea, which can be seen on the map.
The USA, Great Britain, and the Netherlands retain possessions here – former colonies – which they “forgot” to grant independence, but allowed to represent themselves in the football arena.
This applies to absolutely all possessions of London – Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, Bermuda Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat.
The American Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and the Dutch Curacao and Aruba participate in the World Cup qualifiers with the same rights.
On what basis?
So, only in 2024 did FIFA ban territories that are not independent states from joining the organization. But since the law has no retroactive effect, as many as 19 such territories managed to “jump” on the train.
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It would seem that what is the interest of the great powers here? After all, it looks like a waste of talent.
However, the salt is that there is almost no risk.
Anguilla is 15-16 thousand islanders, British Virgin Islands – less than 40 thousand, Turks and Caicos – 47 thousand, Cayman Islands – 77 thousand, Montserrat – 5 thousand, Bermuda Islands – 64 thousand. In the entire history, only one famous player has left these places – Man City striker of the late 1990s, Sean Gowter (84 goals).
In contrast, all the other dark-skinned stars of the Three Lions come from the same region, but much more densely populated places. Yes, Andy Cole, Saul Campbell, Raheem Sterling or Jude Bellingham from Jamaica, Emil Heskey from Antigua and Barbuda, Jermaine Defoe from Dominica.
Roughly speaking, Great Britain agreed to the full membership of its territories in FIFA, because it does not risk anything.
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Did the Netherlands take a risk by admitting 185,000-strong Curacao and 108,000-strong Aruba to FIFA?
At one time it seemed not, but now, among others, the entire family of Jurrien Timber and Jethro Willems are from Curacao, while Denzel Dumfries is from Aruba.
What’s more, the fact itself qualification of Curacao for the 2026 World Cup shows the growth of this national team.
Curacao national football team
Getty Images
The Netherlands itself has created a competitor that claims almost half of the children of migrants from the streets of Amsterdam! And rolling everything back is not an option, because Curaçao and Aruba are the successors of the Netherlands Antilles, which FIFA accepted back in 1932.
The only one whom the Dutch were able to somehow “seize” is Suriname, which is now independent, but once gave Oranje Gullit, Seedorf, Davids, Kluivert and others.
The fact is that currently there is no dual citizenship in the Netherlands – therefore, anyone who wants to play for Suriname must first give up their Dutch passport. As you can easily guess, there are few of them.
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As for the American possessions in the Caribbean, everything is simple – they do not care about soccer so much that it is inconvenient.
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And who remains?
Yes, France, which from time immemorial opposed the full membership of its Caribbean possessions in FIFA.
She was one of the lobbyists of the rule according to which only independent states could be included in FIFA.
For us, on the huge world map, all those islands seem equally tiny, but this is not so. Martinique has a population of 350 thousand, Guadeloupe – more than 400 thousand, Guyana – 320 thousand. In fact, it is comparable to Iceland.
And so it happened that they play football very, very well in those parts.
Thierry Henri’s father is from Guadeloupe, and his mother is from Martinique.
The parents of Alex Lacazette, Kingsley Coman, Lilian Thuram, Anthony Martial moved to France from Guadeloupe, and Jocelyn Anglome and Thomas Lemar were born right there.
Martinique has given football, among others, Sylvain Wiltor, Raphael Varane, Nicolas Anelka and the current Chelsea fullback Malo Giusto.
French Guiana from the northeastern edge of South America presented the French national team with Florent Maloud and two excellent goalkeepers – Mick Meignan and Bernard Lahm.
If Guyana, Martinique and Guadeloupe could play in the World Cup, which team do you think they would all pick?
We give 95% that it would be France.
But in Paris, they don’t want to risk even 5%, so they cut off the possibility of choosing at the root.
Well, so that the islanders are not too offended, they were given the exclusive right to participate in continental tournaments – the Gold Cups and the CONCACAF League of Nations. This is such a compensation.
At the same time, another overseas department of France, New Caledonia, which is in the Pacific Ocean not far from Australia, is still fighting for a place at the World Cup – Paris does not oppose there, because there is zero risk. In the entire history of those regions, only Christian Carambe made it to the top, whose great-grandfather and great-grandmother were displayed at the Paris exhibition together with apes. However, this is another story.
