Auckland – American Samoa football has long been a curiosity for football fans around the world with most of that intrigue based
around the tiny territory and its lowly FIFA ranking. It’s last engagement with the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Qualifiers/XIII South Pacific Games – Samoa 2007 once again left it on the wrong
end of some hefty scorelines.

But much has changed since the XIII South Pacific Games. Gone is the American Samoa Football Association (ASFA) and in its place
Football Federation American Samoa (FFAS) following a Founding Congress called by the 27 clubs that make up the countries football structure. OFC Media caught up with FFAS Chairperson, the
straight-talking no-nonsense Mrs. Pou Supapo, who shed some light on the unique challenges facing one of FIFA and OFC’s smallest member associations.

 

FIFA and OFC had worked hard to provide a roadmap toward an elected administrative body in the country after years of a Normalisation
Committee charged with restoring a professional administration to how football was run with Normalisation Committee chairperson Mrs. Pou Supapo pleased to announce that FFAS’s inaugural Congress
would be held on December 12th, 2007.

Chairperson Pou Supapo is pleased with developments over the past two years and – as the only woman to hold the top job in a
member association, Supapo has overseen a dramatic change in the way football is viewed in the territory.

But the challenges were not just football ones; Supapo was an interloper because she was a woman in a culture where there is a
clear delineation of responsibility according to gender. Men make all the decisions, women stay at home.

“People say everything is equal, but that is not the case in practice. At times I felt like walking away, but I wanted to change
things for football in American Samoa. We have had political problems here for nearly ten years and it did take a strain on my family and work.”

Supapo is a Lieutenant in the American Samoa police force and will complete 20 years service in 2008. Her involvement with
football came about because the two sub-stations entered local football competitions as part of a regime designed in the absence of a physical fitness programme. Police officers, their families,
wives, relatives, would all combine and enter as a club in the local competitions.

She says that in American Samoa there are only three choices for young people: a career in the US Military, a job in American
Samoa’s tuna industry, or become a talented American Football player.

“There are nearly 200,000 people of American Samoa background in the US military so this is a very real career option for our
people. Understand that American Samoa exports only one product – tuna – so the other career option is to take a job in the local cannery for $140.00USD per week. The final option is to become very
talented at American Football and get a college scholarship in mainland USA,” Supapo says.

In 2004 a census in American Samoa revealed that of the territories 68,000 inhabitants, only 11,000 were eligible to vote,
illustrating the struggle FFAS has in selecting a team of high quality to compete within OFC. With teenagers aspiring to join the military, player retention is an even tougher prospect with most
young people joining up with the US military shortly after their 18th birthday.

“The military option comes with a range of benefits including pension, free transportation, medical and education advantages and
so FFAS faces incredible challenges in building up our strength in football. But football has some advantages that other sports do not,” Supapo says.

First and foremost of these is that due to the success of the FIFA Goal Project at Pago Pago Park, football is the only sport on
the island that begins at grassroots elementary level, enabling children and parents to attend matches as part of a family process. No other sports code has an organised structure until high
school. Supapo says the idea of family participation links in strongly with the American Samoa culture itself, where community and spending time together are intrinsic values.

“Football is very popular amongst children and parents alike and there is a cultural appeal that families in American Samoa can
easily identify with. Sports like baseball and American Football don’t have this quality.”

Supapo says the opening of Pago Pago Stadium was by far her most emotional day after two years at the helm of ASFA as it was
then, and she will bear no malice if one day she finds herself no longer involved in football. For a country that did not have a venue for eleven-a-side football until recently, the positive effect
cannot be understated. American Samoa even participated in FIFA Fairplay Day as hundreds of children gathered to acknowledge that football was not just about winning or results – it was about
understanding the spirit in which football is played.

“I was so excited when the Goal Project opened. Christian Karembeu was there and he was a big hit with the children who didn’t
know who he was at first, but once they discovered he was an islander like them, from New Caledonia, and won the FIFA World Cup, there was a relationship there. It is much harder for children from
American Samoa to identify with a sports hero from mainland US than it is an islander. For me, every time I drive past our FIFA Goal Project, I will always smile and be able to say to myself, ‘I
had something to do with that’ and feel proud of what we have achieved.”

Christian Karembeu’s appearance at Pago Pago Park left a happy ambience in American Samoa with most of the territories big
heroes in American Football virtual strangers to the island.

“Christian is an Oceania hero, and FIFA’s good work has left other sports feeling a sense of jealousy. FIFA has given a lot back
to FFAS whereas other athletes and codes that have recruited talented players have not given anything back. There are a lot of American Samoan NFL players, but they have little to do with the
island,” Supapo says.

The Pago Pago Park complex now hosts FFAS’s men’s and
women’s football competitions.