Fiji

The body that now runs Fiji's national side began as an organisation for one community only: the Fiji Indian Football Association, formed in Suva on 8 October 1938. Not until 1961 did it drop that name and reconstitute itself as the Fiji Football Association, open across the islands' communities. Full FIFA membership came in 1964, and two years later Fiji was a founding member of the Oceania Football Confederation.

By then the Bula Boys — the nickname taken from the everyday Fijian greeting — already measured themselves against Australia and New Zealand. Dewan Chand scored in a 4-0 win over New Zealand at the 1980 OFC Nations Cup, and a decade later Ravuame Madigi's goal beat Australia outright, 1-0, during 1990 World Cup qualifying.

Regionally the record reads differently: gold at the Pacific Games in 1991 and 2003, and five Melanesia Cup titles between 1988 and 2000, contested mainly against Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. In the OFC Nations Cup itself the ceiling has stayed at third place, reached in 1998 and again in 2008.

None of it existed before an October afternoon in 1951, when Fiji played its first recorded international, against New Zealand.