ABSTRACT
In those small football associations at the bottom of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) rankings, participation in the finals of a major tournament is usually accepted as impossible. These associations often have a handful of players, at best, with any experience of playing professionally, and the imperative is on grassroots development. This is the key challenge with governance at small national associations, which are often charged with developing the game in areas no larger than a small town in most larger countries. With such a small pool of players, the national teams are usually unsuccessful and go largely ignored, yet their executives, as inexperienced off the pitch in international football as their players are on it, can rise to the well-remunerated upper echelons of FIFA while at times completely oblivious to the standards of governance needed at the national level.
