World’s Worst Won’t Meet during World Cup Final

Over the past few months we’ve tried our best to help American Samoa to move out of 205th spot in FIFA’s rankings but the island nation just doesn’t seem to mind being the last ranked team in the world. The latest sign that it is content on being the world’s worst football team comes from the news that American Samoa will not be playing 204th-ranked Turks & Caicos Islands on the day of the World Cup final this year.

Some of you may recall that on the day of the World Cup final in 2002 Montserrat played Bhutan in a specially arranged battle of the world’s worst teams. It turned out to be a pretty neat thing with players from both team hanging out afterward to watch Brazil play Germany. There is a cool documentary called The Other Final that captures the fun.

Unfortunately a similar game will not be played this year, which means that American Samoa has no hope of moving up in the rankings when FIFA releases them after the World Cup.

You’d think that after 20 plus years of losses they would be salivating over the prospect of getting a win, but maybe it is American Samoa’s plan all along to remain in last place. After all, there is no fame for being the 197th ranked team in the world. No one is talking about the US Virgin Islands these days.