Win $1,000,000 Cash with Conch Developments & The Turks and Caiocs Islands National Football Team

With FIFA World Cup 2010 fever well and truly underway, I thought it would be a good idea to take a break from the action in South Africa and look at football in the Turks & Caicos Islands.  They may be minnows on the world stage but they’re a young squad and the only way is up.  Oh and fancy the chance to win $1m cash* with Conch Developments?  Then read on…

The Turks and Caicos Islands national football team is the national team of the Turks and Caicos Islands and is controlled by the Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association.  Their current coach is Matthew Green. 

Turks & Caicos Squad Colours

The Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association (TCIFA) was only formed on paper in 1996. They had no pitch, no players, no league and a patch of dirt on which to start with. The country had no history whatsoever in football prior to that and the national pastime is dominoes! In common with many Caribbean countries, the sporting choice of the youth is basketball.

The TCIFA was set up by British expatriate workers who wanted to introduce the sport to the local community and after a tremendous amount of hard work they managed to secure funding through FIFA’s ‘Goal’ programme, which offers financial development support to smaller nations. The result was the completion of the very first playing field, floodlights and changing facilities.

The TCI National Squad

Having only joined FIFA in 1998; Turks and Caicos Islands made its first appearance at an official FIFA competition when they entered the 2002 World Cup qualification campaign. In March 2000, the team was knocked out in the first qualification round by St. Kitts and Nevis.

For the 2006 World Cup qualifying competition; the side suffered an aggregate loss against Haiti and the TCI didn’t win its first competitive international match until September 4th 2006 when they resoundingly beat the Cayman Islands 2-0 in the Digicel Cup.

In 2007, the federation completed construction of their first stadium, the Turks and Caicos National Stadium, with the help of the FIFA Goal Programme, and have committed themselves to building a broad base of football participation and support.  The stadium is currently undergoing a major improvement / redevelopment.

On February 6, 2008, the team achieved its first World Cup qualification win 2-1 against Saint Lucia in the CONCACAF first round at home, but in the second leg played March 26, 2008, they were eliminated after they fell short having lost the away leg 0-2 in Saint Lucia for a 2-3 aggregate score. 

Since they’re relatively new to the world of international football, Turks & Caicos FIFA ranking is a lowly 184. However, that still puts them above a number of their regional peers including Anguilla, Montserrat, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, British Virgin Islands, Aruba and the US Virgin Islands!

David Beckham holidays regularly in the Turks & Caicos

There are a number of soccer academies in the islands with Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Gary Neville having publically stated they are interested in opening one together there (all three of them own extensive land / real estate holdings in the TCI) and superstars like Beckham declaring the island as his favourite getaway location.  Women’s soccer is popular and many a five-a-side game amongst ex-pats can be watched (or if Simon Padgett of Remax is involved, I understand the word ‘endured’ is more appropriate!)

They may not be the best but I certainly couldn’t think of anywhere better to play football as there’s no hooligans, no pies, no rainy downpours and certainly no annoying vuvuzela’s!  Better still, the female supporters tend to wear bikinis and instead of warm beer you can enjoy a cool rum cocktail!

Win $1m with Conch Developments

So how can you win $1m cash*?  Well, Conch Developments is (cheekily) offering anyone who emails us at info@conchdevelopments.com free entry into a prize draw for the World Cup 2014.  What’s the draw for?  Well…. If Turks & Caicos win the World Cup Final in 2014 then Conch Developments will select one of the entrants at random and give the lucky winner $1m cash.

Hey…. it could happen!  In between now and then, Messi, Kaka, Rooney and Villa may all choose to play for the TCI, you never know!

*No purchase necessary. Terms & Conditions apply. Email Conch Developments for more information by clicking here

~ by Conch Developments on June 19, 2010.