The Pacific island’s ambitious coach is eyeing a spot at the 2026 World Cup
With their best chance to qualify for a World Cup finals looming, Fiji are throwing their net wider than ever before to bring in players from the Melanesian island’s diaspora.
Fiji qualified for the finals of the Olympic Games in 2016 and have made two appearances at the Under-20 World Cup (in 2015 and 2023) but have never reached the senior tournament.
In the past, the winners of the Oceania qualifying section, generally New Zealand, went into an inter-confederational play-off for a place at the finals, but with the 2026 World Cup expanded to 48 teams the format has changed.
“Now, instead of half a place, we have 1.5 places,” says Rob Sherman, a former professional at Cardiff and Swansea, who was appointed Fiji coach in May 2023. “You could claim the one place or the point five. New Zealand are the team to beat, but who knows.”
The road to the qualifiers starts in March. Fiji will organise a training camp ahead of the international break, in which they will play a three-match series in the Solomon Islands against the hosts, New Caledonia and Tahiti, their main World Cup rivals behind the Kiwis.
Unlike the other Pacific islands,
Fiji rarely engage with the diaspora at senior level, but invites have been extended to half a dozen overseasbased players to attend the training camp.
“We will also invite all the squad that went to the Pacific Games and then depending on availability take it from there,” adds Sherman, who lives in New Zealand but spends around 25 weeks a year in Fiji.
The Fijians finished a creditable third in the 2023 Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands, losing to the hosts in the semi-finals. Beating their island peers is the ambition for 2024.
The names of players invited to the training camp have been kept under wraps, but Sherman and the Fiji FA have identified eligible players in Australia, New Zealand and Britain. Defender Scott Wara, for example, w
