On January 29, Beijing time, the first team to voluntarily announce its withdrawal from the Qatar World Cup qualifiers was released.
In fact, they are somewhat similar to the situation of the Chinese men's football team, that is, the probability of qualifying for the World Cup is recognized as 0%. However, they did not participate in a qualifier, and the reasons for withdrawal were endless.
The Oceania Football Federation officially announced that the Tonga men's football national team was forced to withdraw from the 2022 World Cup qualifiers due to a serious natural disaster.
On the 15th of this month, a large-scale volcanic eruption and tsunami occurred in Tonga, and the entire country was once in a state of disconnection, which attracted widespread attention around the world.
Tonga, with a total population of only 100,000 people, was devastating to the country, affecting more than 80 per cent of the population and collapsing a large number of houses.
In fact, the Tonga men's football team had the opportunity to participate in the Qatar World Cup qualifiers, but at this critical juncture, the players of the Tonga men's football team collectively decided to give up training and competition, and threw themselves into the front line of the disaster, taking care of the victims and helping everyone rebuild their homes!
The Decision of the Tonga Men's Football Team was awe-inspiring, and the Oceania Football Association and UEFA launched a fundraising campaign to help Tonga recover its vitality as soon as possible.
According to the established format, Tonga was supposed to face the Cook Islands in the first round of qualifiers. FIFA has a total of 211 member units, and Tonga ranks only 199th. There are 210 member units that have rankings, and the Cook Islands are the only ones that do not have a ranking (because the FA was heavily fined for irregularities).
From the historical head-to-head record, Tonga still has a clear advantage against the Cook Islands, if Tonga can qualify, it can participate in the group stage in Oceania (8 teams are divided into two groups), and the other three teams in this group are Solomon Islands, Tahiti and Vanuatu.
Why Tonga's football ranks last in FIFA is related to Tonga's population, after all, the total population is only 100,000 people. In addition, Tonga's most important sport is rugby, and Tonga's rugby performance is quite good. Because Tonga's per capita body fat content is as high as 31.9, the degree of obesity ranks second in the world, it is difficult to find excellent seedlings, and it is understandable.
The all-time top scorer of the Tonga men's football team is Urlai, who was born in 1974 due to the lack of football in the country and played for the Tonga national team until 2017.
The most well-known player in the existing Tangjia men's football team is Ania, who once played for Australia's U23, who gave up the opportunity to enter the Australian national team and switched to Tonga. Born in 2000, Ania is also Tonga's first professional player, currently plays for the Cambodian league, and is also The only international in Tonga to stay abroad, which is also quite similar to the Chinese men's football team.