American Samoa, Samoa and Tonga removed from FIFA rankings due to inactivity
All three teams have not played a fixture in over four years, making them ineligible for FIFA's most recent world ranking update.
When it comes to FIFA’s World Rankings, European minnows San Marino seldom have cause for celebration. It’s nearly two decades since the microstate’s first and only win, a 1-0 triumph over Liechtenstein in 2004.
But while they remain dead-last in the most recent men’s categorisation, La Serenissima have jumped up three places, with three teams from the Oceania region the cause.
American Samoa, Samoa and Tonga are now officially unranked nations. The three OFC teams have been scrubbed from the listings due to a prolonged period of inactivity. In order to be eligible for FIFA’s official listings, teams must have played a game within the past 48 months but none of the trio have played a single game over the past four years.
The most recent fixture for all three teams came on the same day, July 18, 2019, at the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.
The trio all suffered heavy defeats. American Samoa lost 8-1 to Tahiti while Tonga succumbed to an 8-0 loss to Papua New Guinea. Home turf advantage meant very little to Samoa, who lost 11-0 to Vanuatu in a game which could have so easily been abandoned after a torrential rainstorm.
FIFA’s most recent men’s rankings, updated after the conclusion of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, dropped on July 20th. All three teams miss that cut by two days which sees them deemed ineligible by football’s world governing body.
There are obvious reasons why the three Pacific nations have fallen foul of this criteria. Covid-19 played havoc with football across the globe. Even New Zealand, the region’s powerhouse, had a nearly two-year gameless period during the pandemic. For the smaller nations in the Pacific Islands, the impact was even more detrimental.

The trio of nations all missed out on their best chance to play within the 48-month period due to a heavily truncated 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying process.
Qualifying was due to start in September 2020 but that entire FIFA window was postponed due to the pandemic. A plan to begin Oceania-based qualifying in March 2021 also fell apart - with strict travel protocols, border restrictions and limited flights in the region a significant barrier to any event taking place.
In the end, Qatar hosted the OFC qualifying tournament in March 2022. However, American Samoa and Samoa both pulled out of the preliminary phase due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
Tonga were then due to play the Cook Islands in a one-off play-off but they also had to withdraw, following the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunami in December 2021.

It is not the first time a Pacific nation has dropped out of FIFA’s rankings. The Cook Islands were removed in September 2019 having not played a game since the corresponding month in 2015. They returned in March 2022 following their loss to the Solomon Islands in a 2022 World Cup qualifier. This was despite the 2-0 defeat eventually expunged as the Cook Islands withdrew from the competition after a Covid-19 outbreak in the camp.
American Samoa were previously ranked 186th in the world, with Samoa 190th and Tonga 194th.
The next chance for each nation to regain eligibility will be the international windows in September, October or November or the Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands, also in November.