Prior to Covid-19 mild shock appeared in the Pacific football community when an apparently sanctioned and indeed well run football league in Nauru was “announced”.
Not only did it have proper teams and players, but said teams at least were also seemingly drawn from places on the island. This initially at least caused shock and bemusement and both myself and Paul Watson had been trying to develop football within the Republic of Nauru.
Of course as well as shock and bemusement there was also at least a little bit of excitement – the only problem? The league was a complete fake.
The Deep Fake Nauru Soccer League
In fairness not only was the website good, and indeed the teams semi-believable, but they even went as far as listing players for all pong the “clubs”.
It was on these two points though that things started to look weird. Firstly whilst the clubs represented regions on tiny Nauru, anyone that has spent time in the country knows that these are hardly towns, with the “league” also seemingly having more representation than Australian Rules Football, the dominant code in the nation.
And then there were the player names, which were just not the kind that you would actually find in Nauru.
And lastly? There isn’t a football field in Nauru.
Uncovering the fake Naira Football League
Myself and Paul duly contacted Kaz Cain the main man in Nauru soccer, who indeed conformed that yes it was fake, with stories than appearing in the media confirming what was going on.
The website duly disappeared with the writers contacted giving the following slightly strange response “Thank you for your kind words, but please read the disclaimer on the main page of the site (in bold in the footer of the page). I will also duplicate this here: Denial of responsibility: The Nauru Soccer League website is not an official Nauru championship and is not affiliated with the Nauru FA in any way. We just want soccer back in Nauru! The people of Nauru deserve their soccer league! I hope you also want soccer to be in every corner of our planet.”
Some have since questioned the validity of this response, with the overarching belief being that they were up to no good.
Said website, namely nauru.me is currently not offering any content, but is still owned, as are almost all other Nauru domains, save Nauru.com, which can be picked up for around $200k
Will there ever be a Nauru Football League
It is very much our plan to make a working functional Nauru Football League, but the stark reality is that it is unlikely to happen all that soon and that even when it does, it is most likely to be futsal, rather than the 11 a side variant due to facilities on the island.
Of course this is a situation that we are trying to change, but of course these things take time.
And while we might not have a Nauru league, nor a fancy website, we are at least the real Nauru Soccer Federation (NSF).