Why A Team From Tahiti Plays In The French Cup (And How They Do It)
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- The French Cup is legendary (among nerds) for having the longest away trips in club football. That’s because they allow teams from France’s overseas territories to enter - and play against teams from the mainland. But how does this actually work? And what are the games like? There's only one way to find out...
A massive thanks to Lee, Paul, and The Sweeper Podcast! You can listen to the episode where they talk about the French Cup here:
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Tahitian Ukulele Loops by @altblankn1448 - soundpacks.com...
Just want to clarify, unlike in the UK, France's overseas territories are part of France itself. There is no political distinction between the overseas regions and the regions in Metropolitan France. They do have special legal status in some cases, but they are all part of France.
And I believe they all get French passports so a flight from Mayotte or Tahiti is domestic for them.
@@joermnyc Except the Tahiti team went through the states so it is two international flights to travel domestic.
@@jacktattersall9457 I mean, not the only place that can happen. IIRC before Russia decided to invade Ukraine, there were domestic flights to its far east with layovers in second country.
what do you mean by UK's overseas
CPGGrey does a really good explanatory video of the different parts of the UK, and it's various types of UK-but-not-UK, that will answer that better than most. :-)
"....including this shot, which nearly ended up back in Tahiti...."
Savage. Genuinely lol'd.
Fun fact: The surfing competitions in the 2024 Summer Olympics will be held in Tahiti which breaks the record for the farthest medal competition to stage outside the host city.
Football’s a game of two halves, and indeed, hemispheres
I live for puns like these.👌
The Coupe de France is by far the best cup competition in the world, as well as being open to the clubs from the DOMTOMs, it also draws lower league teams at home (if there's two levels between clubs) , no replays, just extra time and penalties. It annoys the big teams no end having to trek to a half-derelict Stade Municipal to play on a rutted, grassless pitch against some clogging amateurs. It's great.
The German cup does (kinda) the same, although the Stadiums/pitches of the amateur clubs must clear some requirements to be used for DFB Pokal matches. Mostly to do with capacity, iirc. Oh, and no Overseas territory teams, bc Germany doesn't have any (that I know of)
@@Biglmpact There was that time in the 90's when the small town club SV Meppen spent several years in 2nd league. They 'almost' made it into 1st at one point. Legend has it that other 2nd league teams weren't amused about playing (and even losing) against a team of "hobbyist farm boys" in their small-town stadium. The people of Meppen are still proud of it
The PSG-Carquefous Washington awsome 😂
Was, not Washington!
@@Biglmpact What about Ernst Thälmann island, off the coast of Cuba.
Is it a German territory ?
Edit : apparently, according to the Cuban foreign office it's not.
Was curious as to how the 3 team Saint Pierre and Miquelon league worked so I looked them up. While I didn't discover how the league works, I did find that A.S. Îlienne Amateur (one of the three teams) won the Newfoundland and Labrador Challenge Cup and almost became the provincial representative for Newfoundland and Labrador in the Canadian Challenge Trophy tournament for the best amateur teams in the country in 1979. However, after a media outcry, some soccer organization from either Newfoundland or Canada nullified their win and sent a team actually from Newfoundland instead.
If that was set up to be the qualifier, then shame on them for not respecting the integrity of the competition.
They were probably disqualified because Quebec resents them not joining Canada as the second Francophone province and Newfoundland and Labrador wishes it could annex them.
@jacktattersall9457 Canada has a second Francophone province, New Brunswick. It's officially bilingual, with French and English - in that order - having official status.
@@jacktattersall9457Trust me, most people in Québec have no clue Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon exists, and those who do have no intention of having it join the province or the country. It's a niche touristic destination at most.
And now you know why Canada is not in the Eurovision.
A funny story regarding the situation of a team having to play in weather conditions far outside their normal experience. A world cup qualifying game was held in Toronto between Canada and Honduras. It was snowing during the game. The visitors looked like it was the most miserable day they had ever played, and Canada won 3-1. Honduras had their revenge on the return leg, crushing Canada 8-1 in Tegucigalpa
God! The Canadians probably only won because they were doing fine physically in the snow while the Honduras team was in early stages of hypothermia for the entire game.
@@jacktattersall9457 You likely aren't wrong in assuming that.
Those of us from elsewhere in Canada actually regard Torontonians as somewhat wimpy in their handling of winter weather, but they would certainly have more familiarity with it than someone from Central America
@@jacktattersall9457 Also, it was just a light flurry
@@dennisenright9347 Have you ever seen Vancouver when it gets snow -- that's the definition of whimpy in winter!
@@jacktattersall9457 Nah, if you want wimpy in winter you need England. If there's more than a single flurry forecast it leads to weather warnings, and a whole inch of snow means school closures and general panic!
6:25 - once again impressed by the music in these videos. A piano version of "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne was not something I knew I needed to hear. But I did.
And a lovely piano version of the theme for the Australian soap " Home and Away" at the end
Hello and bonjour Tim, I am from Thionville, from which the team travelled to New Caledonia. So cool to have my hometown mentioned in your video for a moment!
When I read the title, I immediately knew WHY the team plays in the french cup - but I thought it would still be interesting to hear you talk about the how. And I was not disappointed :)
[Edit: Oh, and by the way: The question if UEFA would let them play is already answered. They would. But there are two catches that make it impracticable: Catch One is that they would need to name a home stadium that was up to UEFA standards. This has happend to a lot of surprise underdog cup winners like e.g. my home town team of Alemannia Aachen who had to play in Cologne because out stadium was not euro-ready. And Catch Two is that, obviously, the UEFA won't fund trips for them to participate in the group stage and it is highly questionable if the french association would continue to fund an entire group stage worth of overseas travel for the team. The only question that is kinda open is weather the _other_ teams in the UEFA group stage would have to pay for their own trip TO Haiti as well, which might be fine and a nice bonus for sites like ManU or Bayern München, but could be balance breaking for, say, the moldovan cup winner.]
Second caveat should not be a problem, since the money earned through getting into the group stage should be enough to fund all travel. And Klaksvik from Faroe Island plays the group stage in a stadium with less than 3000 seats this season, therefore I think finding one stadium good enough should be doable.
Thanks for the insights ! (careful it's Tahiti and not Haiti haha)
Not sure about that, since most of those teams also play local cups qualifying to confederations' tournament (CONCAF, AFC and CAN). Pretty sure you can't have double affiliation and the UEFA qualifying spot would reverse to runner-up or into a top tier table extra spot
@@thibautnarme6402 As long as they do not qualify for two different confederations' tournament the very same season, there's not really an issue here.
Given the Tahitian football season runs from November-July, I also suspect that if this was to happen, the Tahitian team might get to play their UEFA home group stage games at a nominated stadium in France, and start their season slightly later. Assuming they didn't qualify out of the group stage they'd be out by the first week of December and be back home shortly after.
Any mention of the Coupe de France always brings to mind Calais Racing Union, an amateur side who made it to the final in 2000.
And who's best player Emmanuel Vasseur went on to sign for English professional 4th level team Leyton Orient, and flopped.
And sadly the club went bust a few years later. A shame as a visit to their home games was enjoyable.
In 2014 the European Track Cycling Championship was hosted by France in Guadeloupe.
Out of all the possible results, a well fought 1-0 was not what I was expecting. I would have thought it would be massively unbalanced, just wasn't sure which way around!
the piano version of "Complicated" while explaining the rules behind this is quite brilliant :)
This and Home and Away are songs more associated with former Commonwealth realms :) Imagine a top tier Canadian team playing a League Three team and the A-League champion playing a League One team? This would be brilliant.
I have watched more football on your channel in two years than I have watched on TV in 40 years. To say that I'm not a fan of football is an understatement, but I am a big fan of your channel, including the bizarre football matches you put on here.
Try going to a stadium if you have someone to go with. I find football on TV extremely boring but the very few times I went to see it live on a stadium (which happened, like, two or three times), I was actually having fun the whole 90+ minutes.
0:02 - Around the World - Daft Punk
0:50 - Match of the Day theme
1:28 - Tahiti - Keen'V
2:02 - Unknown
6:24 - Complicated - Avril Lavigne
7:34 - La Marseillaise
8:57 - Home and Away theme
11:35 - Home and Away theme
1:28 : Keen V - Tahiti 🤌
@@Fanthorp Thank you!
@@Fanthorp :puke:
3:00 - I just died in your arms tonight
6:24 was Ramenez la coupe à la maison by Vegedream.
The piano music in the background of explaining the overseas teams is why I love this channel.
Another interesting story is about a New Caledonia club called Hienghène Sport. In November 2019, they played their 7th round of French Cup against Vauban Strasbourg (3-1 Loss). 1 month later, they entered another competition, the FIFA Club World Cup, as winners of the 2019 OFC Champions League. They were sadly eliminated on first Round after ET against Al-Sadd, coached at the time by Xavi.
How?
@@MarsiVenus33New Caledonia is affiliated to FIFA, even being part of France.
So, its clubs comprtes in OFC Champions League, which is a qualifier for FIFA Club World Cup.
Hyenghène won the competition in that year.
I’m not a football fan by any means, but any pedantry always does it for me. As ever, thanks Tim!
A fascinating, and very funny, video. This is why football is the number one sport in the world. You can't help but love the underdogs in football.
One of the reasons I like France so much is the go the extra mile to be quirky. Love it.
Using "Extra mile"in your comment is probably the most accurate metaphor and the greatest euphemism I've ever read.
Lovely work, Tim. Thank you for the innocent pleasure that you bring to so many people. Keep up the good work!!
You immediately had me with music...as you always do! 💯
lala lala la (1000x)
@@robin1987100 ....home and awaaaaay,,,
I had no idea there was a French Oversea Territory in North America till this video.How is it possible I had never known of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. I have a rabbit hole to go down now, thanks Tim!
It does some really weird things to international fishing rights!
France purposefully kept St-Pierre during negotiations with Brittan when they lost some long ago war because it gives them fishing rights off Canadian coasts that they would otherwise not have. Why you ask? From what I understand Brittany has a long history of fishing off the Canadian coast and for France internal political reasons it was more important to keep access to that resource than to keep the colonies in America.
This enrages the Canadian goverment that tries to manage the dwindling fish stock off the east coast while France keeps taking all they can.
The Caribbeans are in North America. France owns several territories there. Plus 1 west of Mexico.
From what I know, St-Pierre is a very small community that is essentially kept alive by the french government operations (poste, police, douane ...) . They have little in terms of fishing territory and it appears that it's not enough to keep everyone on the island fed. Geologically similar to Newfoundland, it's poor, glacier scrapped, soil and cool climate would makes it ill suited for commercial agriculture.
There are no doubt hotels but it's not really known as a tourist destination. That said, you should see icebergs in the spring and a variety of whales in the summer (but french territorial waters are quite narrow so I expect you are better off taking that whale watching from St-John Newfoundland. which has a small whale watching tourist industry).
There's a good film set in colonial times about the islands called, 'The Widow Of St. Pierre'. If I remember correctly, 2 local guys are sentenced to death for murder, but there's no guillotine there. So one has to be brought all the way from the French Caribbean...
I love the cut to black on "week-long all expenses paid trip to tahi...yeah sorry."
This has inspired me to book a flight to Tahiti.
Not really. I've had the tickets for a while now. Currently, there's no football on my itinerary.
1:05 - Decent save from a point-blank header there.
Nice touch with the 'Complicated' cover song while describing the qualifying rules.
As a French football lover, i'm still amazed of these kind of events.
I'd love to see an DOM-TOM team go over the 16th round !
I am surprised that some don't go further. E.g. Reunion has a bigger population some European countries. I assumed they had a decent amateur league and therefore would have good chances to beat other amateur teams.
Lee from The Sweeper here. Also surprised that they don’t go further. The furthest an overseas team has ever got is the last 32 and that has happened only three times ever! But we hope and pray for a longer overseas cup run soon! 😃
Being surrounded by other European countries makes it easier for one to play football than if you're in an island in the middle of nowhere.
@@SweeperPod I'd guess one issue is talent migration to mainland France as I would guess visa rules would be fairly easy considering the political situation
@@bartsimho1192 Reunión is an integral part of france, so no problemos for them moving to the european part of france i guess?
@@SweeperPodit also reminds me of when my local town team lost something like 13:1 (don’t remember the actual result) against Bayern Munich. But everyone talked about the guy that scored against them 😂.
I konw... basically nothing about football/soccer (I'm American); but I always find these Tim Traveler videos about it fascinating, because it's less about the sport (which isn't my thing) and more about the experience of being there.
I dunno, it's just neat.
As usual excellent stuff Tim. Please do similar for the Isle Of Man football club that has recently joined the English leagues, I'm aware they pay for away teams to visit but I'd really like to know how the club is set up (it seems to be some sort of 'international' team comprising of the best players from the Island league, how does this work, and can they not sign foreigners or even Brits/Irish?)
Similar story with Guernsey FC and Jersey Bulls.
I referee in NWCFL (Isle of Man’s league) and they can sign whoever they want as if it’s a normal English league side, just most players tend to be born or have emigrated to Isle of Man
@@oct2364 can and do they sign players from the island league, and do those players continue to play for their NWCFL side alongside the IOM team in the English leagues. Is that why the 'blackout'?
Well that sure is bizarre! It's a nice bit of diplomacy on France's part, but imaging flying for (probably) a whole day each way just to end up somewhere so cold to you it might as well be a fridge, just so that you can lose a game of football in the rain and go home again. Probably more worth it for the week hanging out with the France national team than the game itself.
Yes, you're probably right! But I hope both teams had a few drinks together after the game, it all seemed to be played in good spirit.
Still a free trip tho
Worth it we have players like Thuram , Henry and Payet coming from theses islands :)
Sometimes, it is the first and only time they can travel to Metropolitan France. So wherever they go, they must love the experience. I know that when I played junior league, I would have loved my team to win and get a draw to play in Tahiti !
Yes! A new Tim traveler video 👏
one in a france :D
the music choice for each section is always so on point, thanks Tim
More so when you consider Home and Away is from one of the Commonwealth realms. Prescient in both the match context (colony vs empire team) and the home and away fixture contexts.
Your background musical performance of Avril Lavigne to start off the "Trying to Explain This Total Madness" halftime segment -- chef's kiss
5:40 "I'm quite displeased by these events" 🤣
Well, in a way, I knew why Tahiti plays in the French Cup (Basically, politically, they're French, so of course, they're there). But hearing the whole logistics behind it was fascinating. Also, apparently, I still know all the words to the Home and Away theme song. LOL !
Really enjoyed this, I'm subscribed so no idea why it's only just shown up in my feed now. Also I've been introduced to a new podcast! Cheers.
As always the music choices are spot on!
6:25 I just wanted to say that putting Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" as background theme for this section was a brilliant move.
Added bonus of 'Home and Away' theme tune as the outro!
In 1954 when north africa was under french colonial era, the french federation autorize the north african club to play the cup of France. In 1957 the amateur club from Algiers named Sporting Université Club El Biar (or SCU El Biar) beat at the round of 16, the great Stade de Reims who was finalist of european champions cup against Real Madrid. It was the best result for a team from overseas. The match was played at Toulouse on neutral ground.
As a French one of my dream is to see a couple of Tour de France stages in the overseas territory. I kmow that is completely impossible logistically speaking but that would be an absolute banger.
Home and Away theme song to finish.
Australian soap opera theme in a video about french teams, one closer to Australia in distance
only Tim can make a video about football not boring :) Couldn't help notice that there's a distinct lack of steam trains at this football pitch ;)
"The game's gone to extra time!"
"Damn, we've missed our flight!"
You know what, I’ve been thinking about this in my Football Manager day. Now, imagine a mad, rich man in Saint Martin Football Association thinking that “f**k this, there is no club in this country, there is nearly no football”, hungry to get that juicy French Cup experience to further develop this territory football. So what did he do? He started a national (in fact territory but let’s put it like that) football academy, get good coaches, high-level facilities and trained every single Saint Martin youngsters that want to play football to their highest potential in hope he could sell them to French clubs. By some shady lobbying, this academy become Saint Martin’s representative in the French Cup. He thinks it would create a shortcut to get his youngsters elsewhere. So you got this weird matchup between a U18 representative team from a territory whose population is a small town at best vs the football club of a random village in Corsica.
But that’s not it. As times goes, this Saint Martin academy somehow become an pretty high quality academy, with more kid somehow get youth contract in Ligue 1 clubs. With some defensive shenanigans, they successfully qualify to the round of 32. Their opponents? Paris SG. And they will play in Paris, in a stadium that can hold more people than where they come from.
Not only that, imagine the ripple it would cause on the saint martin national team?
What if they end up qualifying for the gold cup. Or even the world cup!?
So awesome of you to play French music in the beginning! 💯💥
7:01 🎶 Why'd you go ahead and make things so complicated 🎶
You make anything and everything SO interesting! No matter the subject, Tim never fails to make it entertaining, interesting, and informative. On another note, Tim you gotta do a video about Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog 🇧🇪🇳🇱….it would be the ultimate Tim Traveler video! Might make a good anniversary video or a good video to do when you hit another number of followers milestone…
01:40 Keen-V - Tahiti in the backgrround! We love to see it!
Today's 'Halloooo' reminds Caribbean lads like me that sports is a trade-off between damp/cold and cactus at the end of a slide. It goes well with beer and a warming fire.
As usaul, Tim never fails to entertain and help us learn about the world. Thank, sir!
This is right up my street. I love this sort of football. I follow all leagues and that podcast sounds perfect to me. I will be subscribing.
Tim, I am so glad the ending theme is the theme from Australia Channel 7's legendary soap, Home and Away. Summer Point is closer to me than France hehe. I am so glad the drama on ITV/Channel 5 is a big part of your life in UK/France oooh.
Come to think of it, your song choice is definitely intentional. First the song theme can be applied here, Home and Away. I also immediately thought of the possibilities of the winners of the British Commonwealth (e.g. New Zealand, Canada, Falkland Islands and even Australia, the home country for Home and Away) contesting the FA Cup, with costs fully borne by the FA haha.
Like we say in France ; " C'est la magie de la coupe".
Just heard the sweeper episode about this and spat my drink out when they mentioned you!! Great video
I love the piano music in this video. Very well done (Home and Away lol).
The Home and Away theme was a nice touch 😂
Just have to say...MOTD theme played steel drum style is just a tiny bit marvellous...❤🇨🇵⚽️👍🇦🇺
Thank you - but you have accidentally unleashed your very own musical edition of Pedantry Corner :D Steel drums are from the Caribbean, not the Pacific Islands. Those were Tahitian drums! And Tahitian ukuleles. (And a xylophone, which admittedly is less Tahitian, but xylophones are pretty much universal, so I figured I could get away with it.)
@@TheTimTraveller 🙏Forgive me, O great and wise Master, for I have transgressed...😁 I have never been happier to be corrected! Keep up the excellent work, Tim.👍🇦🇺
Must be a heck of an experience for those from the territories…
Interestingly, Guernsey plays in the *checks notes* Isthmian South Central division (which is I think 8 leagues down in the pyramid.) this league is geographically Surrey and Sussex I think and it means that the local team to me have to fly out there every year (I assume the Balliwick of Guernsey must pay for this?)
A youtuber (Work the Space) did an FM career with Guernsey last year, was good fun to see it represented!
That was the home and away theme tune on piano at end 🤣🤣
...with the Picardy third at the end. Love it.
Gee the Home and Away theme song caught me off guard at 9:05 😂😂😂Very appropriate!
That Around the World MIDI was so groovy you had me dancing!
A very heartwarming and inspiring video
What?!?! Standing under a tree in some random town in France in the cold drizzle sounds amazing!..... hmmm... I might have some biases.
Wow Tim, loving the MOTD tunes at the beginning... Could you please do that with every football-related video you will do in the future?
Quirky Football Trivia are by far my fave segments in your channel.
Brilliant vid! I must say the choice of music is top class
You had me at "beer tent"
Interesting glimpse of the French attitude to its ex-empire territories, as well - and the contrast with the UK's. I don't know the situation exactly (for instance, do they elect MPs in the French parliament?), but at least one of these countries/departments (French Guiana) uses the Euro, and why maps of the EU often confusingly include the Atlantic Ocean! Spain has a similar situation with the Canary Islands, where they are treated as part of Spain, elect an MP, etc - and, unlike the French situation, Unión Deportiva Las Palmas (Las Palmas FC) actually play in La Liga (Spain's Premier Division).
Overseas territories send representatives to National Assembly and Senate, and citizens voting overseas can also vote for presidential elections and European Parliament elections.
French overseas regions (Martinique, Réunion, Guadeloupe and Guiana) are integral parts of France since 1946 (therefore being part of the EU, using the euro, being represented and everything else, just like Hawaii is in the US). They reached that status because of the activism of Martinican politician Aimé Césaire. Mayotte joined in 2010.
Tahiti and New Caledonia are more autonomous, they have their own currency (Pacific francs), they are not part of the EU, yet they are still French citizens represented at the National Assembly and Senate and voting for the French Presidential election.
In football, Martinique, Réunion, Guadeloupe, Guiana and Mayotte are parts of the FFF (since they are integral parts of France). Tahiti and New Caledonia have each their own independent FA.
Same with Portugal and Madeira & Azores (heck, Cristiano Ronaldo himself is from Madeira!). But that's a bit of a different situation because, just like the Canary Islands with Spain, these are pretty close to the mainland. More akin to Corsica in France.
Also noting that French people living in foreign countries also send representatives to parliament and vote for the French presidency ... as if they were living in France (I am one of them).
Not sure if anyone has come back to mention it but Golden Lion of Martinique made it to the last 64 where they played away at top league Lille. Lost 12-0 but must have been a pretty special occasion.
I have no interest in football at any level, but I clicked on the video because I expected I would enjoy it, and would learn something. I was right on both counts :) Many thanks, Tim!
by the way, if I'm not mistaken the olympics next year will have the surfing events in Tahiti
One of my favorite trivia of french football related to the episode is the semi final of the 1959 french cup between Sochaux and Rennes played in ... Oran !
Imagine a team from the overseas territory somehow ends up winning the French Cup, which means qualification for the European competitions.
Can you imagine a team travelling three times a year to Europe to play in the Europa League, or can you imagine a Norwegian or Polish team travelling to Tahiti or Martinique to play group matches?
You mention Norway, imagine a Tahitian team having an away day to Tromsø! If this game was too cold for them, I can't imagine how they'd feel about the Arctic circle
Ah, the magic of the cup! Goalside view, under a tree to keep the rain off, and near the beer tent, these chaps have style! Out of interest, how much were the tickets?
Tim, at some point you absolutely have to visit St. Pierre et Miquelon to cover their tiny league (and potential future national team!!!), among the other curiosities of a tiny French territory off the coast of Newfoundland
Future national team ? Euuuh non...
I hadn't actually thought about the chance of Europe, but that's a fascinating question - would make the Faroe Islander team recently seem positively expected! Thanks, this answered some questions I'd had since I found out about this interesting quirk of French football
Really wholesome content through and through, from the video to the comments. Lovely!
Looking at that match between the club from Reunion and Paris FC of Ligue 2. Don't know how good Reunion football but like the Tahitians a trip to Paris would be awesome.
Lol Home and Away theme song in background. How Fitting. lol
Both teams seems light years away from Champions League, yet someone brought an airhorn..
Also, spelled out, St Meziery sounds like the French translation of Saint Misery.
"Complicated," nice 🤣👍🏻🎶
Using the Home & Away theme song, excellent choice in music as usual!
Never interested in football, but Tim has found a way.
Love your football content Tim!
Always like the inventive versions of the “Match of the Day” theme.
Golden Lion FC from Martinique are playing Lille in the round of 64!
And here was I thinking Tim has wangled a trip to Tahiti.... 😁😉
About time! I don't think we've seen the highest point in Tahiti yet
What a fantastic video. Really informative and really well put yogether. As a footy fan who enjoys the odd trip abroad, you have given me food for thought.
Really enjoyed this. Will deffo give the podcast a listen!
Tremendous watch mate
Very well-worked "Home and Away" theme tune in at the end there 😂
Well-played, Sir, well-played.
I now need to see a football manager save where someone tries to win the Champions League with a team from Saint Pierre and Miquelon (assuming someone mods in the league to be playable)
I'm so glad I wasn't the only one thinking this!
There's jet leg and then there's extreme jet leg and I thought soccer/football was crazy with the Canadian soccer /football man. The things I learned from you then again I'm just a clueless Canadian who's still learning a lot about his British counterparts
Monaco is also allowed to play in the French cup, Andorra has the right to play in the Spanish cup, San Marino has it own cup and finally Liechtenstein has also its own cup
And Liechtenstein is the only UEFA member without it's own league (teams from Liechtenstein play in the Swiss league system). Since teams from Liechtenstein can't qualify for European competitions via the Swiss league only the cup winner gets to play in Europe, and they get a place in the Conference League qualification. That means the only way to see a team from Liechtenstein in the Champions League is that the cup winner wins the Conference League which gives an automatic spot to the Europa League the following season, which they need to win to secure a Champions League spot.
The case of Andorra is a bit more complex. They have their own league (2 categories) and cup, and teams have access to European championship. But additionally, there is one single club playing in Spanish leagues and not in Andorran leagues, which is FC Andorra (currently in the second division of Spain). Also in basketball and Andorran team plays in the main Spanish category.
San Marino also have a team in the italian league system. Victor San Marino plays in Serie D
Loved it - just bloomin' loved this video! Fascinating ... never been so engrossed in a game of football! Cheers! :)
was that the "Home and Away" theme tune to play you out lol
The only CZcamsr I'd happily watch a video about football.