Chagos Islands national football team
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| Association | Chagos Football Association |
|---|---|
| Confederation | Confederation of Independent Football Associations |
| Head coach | Serge Jeanlouis |
| FIFA code | n/a |
| First international | |
 Chagos Islands 6–1 Raetia  (Crawley, UK; 4 December, 2011) |
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| Biggest win | |
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Chagos Islands 6–1 Raetia (Crawley, UK; 4 December, 2011) |
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| Biggest defeat | |
 W. Armenia 12–0 Chagos Islands (Sukhumi, Abkhazia; 30 May, 2016) |
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The Chagos Islands national football team is a football team ostensibly representing the territory of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. However, this area, which falls under the administration of the British Indian Ocean Territory, is uninhabited save for the presence of a US military base on the island of Diego Garcia. As a consequence, the team in fact represents the Chagossian diaspora around the world.
In 2004, following the granting of Chagossians living in the UK the right to apply for a British passport, a group of islanders living near Crawley in West Sussex founded a governing body for football among their community, and the wider worldwide Chagossian diaspora, with a view to forming a national team. This resulted in the formation of the Union Chagossiene de Football, which joined the N.F.-Board, an international body for national football teams unable to join FIFA, in 2005. Amongst the activities the UCF undertook was organizing a club side, Chagos Islands F.C., which played in the Crawley and District Football League until it was disbanded in 2010. With no immediate UK domestic outlet for their players to play, the UCF attempted to promote the side in the international arena, attempting to take a team to the 2010 Viva World Cup in Gozo. However, owing to the association's financial situation, and the wholly amateur status of the players, this was not possible. Attempts to reform the club side in another local league in Sussex also failed, leading to the team training regularly, but not playing.
In December 2011, a friendly was finally arranged with the Raetia football team, another member of the N.F.-Board, who not only came to the UK, but also brought a full set of kit for the Chagossian team to use. The game was played at the ground of Oakwood F.C., for whom Chagossian straker Mervin Bhujan was a player, and who arranged use of the stadium, and led to a 6-1 victory for the Chagos Islands. This led to hopes that the team would be able to participate more fully in N.F.-Board events, but lack of finances again meant this was to prove impossible.
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