stuartcw

My Indian colleague tried to get me interested in talking about cricket again today, but, sorry Dad, I'm not interested in cricket. I asked him instead how the Indian soccer team were doing, little knowing that they were beaten 2:1 by Fiji (snigger) yesterday. Fiji has a population of 844,330 vs India's 1,080,264,388!

For the world's second most populous nation, the FIFA World Cup(TM) still seems to be a road too far. But, while the side are regularly fodder for even the region's mid-level teams, India have shown signs of a slight recovery in fortunes....India qualified for the 1950 FIFA World Cup(TM) after a number of teams withdrew from the tournament. However, they declined to participate after FIFA prohibited playing barefoot.

To date Fiji's 13-0 win over American Samoa in 2001 was their greatest winning margin, some consolation for a defeat in 1981 when they lost by the same margin to New Zealand.

Another random fact: In Fiji, Queen Elizabeth's title is the Great Chief of the Great Council of Chiefs and as Michael Caine would say, "not many people know that".

As of July 2005 the Faroe Islands pop. 48,228 are still higher rated than India or Fiji!