Seychelles, San Marino start football cooperation |20 September 2022

The Seychelles Football Federation is stepping up cooperation with foreign counterparts as it pursues efforts to give local football players more exposure and build a stronger senior men’s national team,

Following regular participation in regional and continental competitions, recent tournaments in Asia, the federation is now eyeing Europe through a new cooperation with San Marino, the continent’s smallest footballing nation.

The first fruit of this new cooperation agreement, signed in May this year, is a friendly match between Seychelles and San Marino scheduled for tomorrow evening (Wednesday September 21) at the San Marino stadium in Serravalle.

Consisting of 17 players and five officials, the Seychelles delegation depart this morning via Emirates and will be back home on September 24, leaving San Marino the previous day.

The delegation will be led by Ralph Jean-Louis with Vivian Bothe as coach and Michael Delpech as manager.

The match will be an affair between two of the smallest footballing nations on the two continents. While San Marino, with a population of just over 35,000, is the smallest in Europe, Seychelles with around 100,000 is the smallest in Africa.

Other than having more inhabitants than San Marino, Seychelles is also ranked above the latter on the Fifa (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) ranking. Seychelles is ranked 198th with 860.48 points while San Marino is 211th with 763.82 points.

Both teams have never qualified for the group stage of their respective continental competitions. Seychelles has never progressed past the African Nations Cup preliminary qualifying round and the same has been the case for San Marino in the European Nations League.

However, San Marino have more experience playing against much stronger European opponents, but they have never won a match in those top-level competitions.

Judging from their Fifa ranking positions, Seychelles is expected to do well against San Marino, but most importantly this first encounter is expected to open doors for future cooperation on the European continent, explained Seychelles Football Federation chief executive Georges Bibi.

“We believe that by exposing our players to as many different football styles as possible, their repertoire will improve and their performance will be better in the long run,” he said.

He said the federation’s focus was on youth football to develop young talents for the national senior team.

“We now have selections in a variety of age groups, and we are competing in numerous tournaments organised in the region, on the African continent and elsewhere,” he said, adding that the federation will also be starting new leagues that do not exist in age groups leading up to senior level.

He said that while the federation was focusing on youth development, there was also a need to maintain the platforms and cooperation agreements that would allow those youths to prosper at senior level.

For this friendly match with San Marino, the hosts are catering for all local costs including board and lodging.

It is hoped that the exchange will remain a permanent feature on the federation’s national team preparation calendar and the San Marino team will be able to come and play in Seychelles at some point in future.

The Seychelles delegation for San Marino is as follows:

Management: Ralph Jean-Louis, Michael Delpech, Vivian Bothe, Juan Michel and Bruno Saindina

Goalkeepers: Alvin Michel, Dave Mussard

Defenders: Don Fanchette, Benoit Marie, Ramlee Pascal, Gillio Suzette, Juninho Mathiot, Brandon Molle, Yannick Manoo and Danny Madeleine

Midfielders/strikers: Neil Confiance, Kenner Nourrice, Josip Ravigna, Ryan Henriette, Brandon Labrosse, Dean Mothé and Gervais Waye-Hive

Contributed