The 2023 Pacific Games comes at a vital time for countries that historically found playing regularly already difficult due to the distances involved and were further isolated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Only seven islands entered the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, which were relocated to Qatar last year and blighted by the virus, with Samoa, Tonga and American Samoa not entering and all subsequently dropping out of the FIFA Rankings due to inaction.
With the virus
