Speaker 1: So without any further ado, wasting no time as the man.
Speaker 1: The man is ready to go. It is like early afternoon,
Speaker 1: so nine plus five is fourteen, so it's a little
Speaker 1: after two o'clock in the afternoon on the other side
Speaker 1: of the Atlantic Ocean.
Speaker 2: What show gives you that? I think ours none others?
Speaker 1: We bring in Lloyd Ours TD for the Marshall Island
Speaker 1: Soccer Federation.
Speaker 2: How are you, my friend.
Speaker 3: I'm good, I'm good. I'm a little bit nasily. We're
Speaker 3: struggling with hay fever.
Speaker 4: Here in the UK. But good to be back mate.
Speaker 2: Always a pleasure, yep, I am right there with you.
Speaker 2: Allergies are with me.
Speaker 1: You know, when we figured out that you could do
Speaker 1: this on a quick turn, I was trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what gear to wear.
Speaker 4: And obviously I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: I had to go with this because if I wore
Speaker 1: the the the newer one of the two, than it
Speaker 1: would end up being like just massive flares and no
Speaker 1: one could actually see my face, which might actually be
Speaker 1: an improvement.
Speaker 2: But but I figured I.
Speaker 1: Would go and bust out the og, the og jersey
Speaker 1: and the reason that I wanted to bring you on,
Speaker 1: and you and mad or anybody else that could answer
Speaker 1: the sirens song this morning? Is that for those that
Speaker 1: have been keeping track of a particular Kickstarter project about
Speaker 1: what the desire was for the Federation, and it's august In, Arkansas,
Speaker 1: which sounds like some kind of a Norman rockwall painting.
Speaker 1: August In, Arkansas actually is going to happen because you
Speaker 1: made your number on the Kickstarter project.
Speaker 2: When did you find out that you made the number?
Speaker 3: Well, I have to be like the damper on it
Speaker 3: slightly only because so we found out as it was rolling.
Speaker 3: I don't know about Matt and Justin, but we were
Speaker 3: like refreshing out our feets every every hour, it seemed.
Speaker 4: And then someone beat us to it.
Speaker 3: So we have a guy called Woody Watson who is
Speaker 3: Arkansas based and has doing a lot of legwork on
Speaker 3: the ground for us, and he beat.
Speaker 4: Us to it.
Speaker 3: He put it into our little WhatsApp group and if
Speaker 3: you made it, so we reached that twenty thousand pound
Speaker 3: and I think it's about twenty six thousand dollars, which is amazing,
Speaker 3: and to be honest, yet that that covers a big
Speaker 3: chunk of the funding needed.
Speaker 4: I guess.
Speaker 3: The big thing for us now is we do need
Speaker 3: an extra push, which we're going to try to do
Speaker 3: from sponsorships. So the twenty grand will twenty thousand pound
Speaker 3: will cover our accommodation. So not only do we have
Speaker 3: to cover ourselves and give ourselves somewhere to stay for
Speaker 3: our team as a host nation, we have to provide
Speaker 3: that for the visit in nations as well. So food
Speaker 3: and accommodation is put on by the host nation, which
Speaker 3: is US, so that covers that, which is fantastic. Now
Speaker 3: we've got the big push to get us there. So
Speaker 3: that's where the sponsorship's going to come in. Hopefully we
Speaker 3: can find someone that wants to put their name, you know,
Speaker 3: their company's brand in across the It could be the
Speaker 3: headline sponsor, you could be sponsoring goalkeeper gloves, whatever it
Speaker 3: may be, balls, match day experience, whatever it may be.
Speaker 3: But that's where this sponsorship drives down going to come
Speaker 3: But yeah, the big chunkers is gone, which is amazing.
Speaker 1: What has it been like for all of you guys
Speaker 1: to come up with this idea? Well, first off, where
Speaker 1: did you come up with the kickstarter idea to try
Speaker 1: and see if that would help.
Speaker 4: To be honest, it was Matt. I don't think I
Speaker 4: can take credit for it. I don't think anyone else
Speaker 4: can as well.
Speaker 3: It was Matt's idea because we had the go fundme
Speaker 3: patron when we first started, which everyone seems to be
Speaker 3: doing it, you know, everyone has that approach. With the Kickstarter,
Speaker 3: it seems a little bit cooler because the draw and
Speaker 3: the sort of the appeal of the Kickstarter is you
Speaker 3: risk it, you have it all, or you lose it.
Speaker 3: So we set the bar high, but by on in
Speaker 3: mind to run the tournament itself is going to be
Speaker 3: around seventy thousand, sixty thousand pounds. We have unfortunately had
Speaker 3: Guam that are dropped out, which is a shame. But
Speaker 3: in the one hand, it makes it easier to frustrating
Speaker 3: a little bit money, so it does drop it slightly.
Speaker 3: On the other side, it makes it sad that they
Speaker 3: couldn't take up because they're a big ally that we
Speaker 3: wanted to use. But yeah, with the Kickstarter, we knew
Speaker 3: the figure. But at the same time, if you don't
Speaker 3: hit the limit is, yeah, you lose.
Speaker 4: Whatever's in there.
Speaker 3: So you might be, you know, five pound five dollars short,
Speaker 3: but you lose whatever's in there. So we thought, well,
Speaker 3: we're too risky to put the full of out. We've
Speaker 3: put twenty thousands, and yeah, we fortunately made it. But
Speaker 3: I think we've twelve days to spare as.
Speaker 1: Well and to have this kind of attention to an idea.
Speaker 1: How wide ranging has it been where fox have been
Speaker 1: able to sit there and express interest in the project.
Speaker 1: How many folks have been reaching out? Hasra WhatsApp group
Speaker 1: been blowing up from all around the planet.
Speaker 3: Oh, honestly, honestly, Like I think we've got about ten
Speaker 3: new WhatsApp groups now because we self and Matt and
Speaker 3: just didn't have one anyway. Then we had like board ones,
Speaker 3: and we had ones with just a couple of people
Speaker 3: of Markansas. Now we've got ones with people that are
Speaker 3: running it in terms of setting the things up for us,
Speaker 3: so we you know, we want a certain venue, we
Speaker 3: wanted for certain times, want practice at certain times for
Speaker 3: all the teams. But we are the other side of
Speaker 3: the world. We're collecting with people twelve hours ahead and
Speaker 3: also six hours behind, so collaborating rather. So we've got
Speaker 3: Woody that's doing that for us. But yeah, then we've
Speaker 3: got other groups as well. So we've had a fortunately
Speaker 3: had a group of I want to say, six or
Speaker 3: seven people that have expressed interest in just helping with
Speaker 3: ideas and sharing it and they've created a new WhatsApp group.
Speaker 3: But no, it's been amazing, and you know, the press
Speaker 3: we've had from it has been has been great. As usual,
Speaker 3: We've got to keep the momentum going and keep the
Speaker 3: message in.
Speaker 4: The in the media from now.
Speaker 2: Anyway, how did you come up with Springdale as your venue?
Speaker 3: I can't remember if we've spoken about it before. I'm
Speaker 3: pretty sure we have, but I'm not sure. But yeah,
Speaker 3: Springdale is like the hub of non RMI based communities,
Speaker 3: is the largest Marshal Lease community based outside of the
Speaker 3: Marshal Lands itself. Whenever we've done anything in terms of
Speaker 3: the US based activity, these women's camp stuff like that,
Speaker 3: it's been in Arkansas especially, you know, mostly around Springdale,
Speaker 3: So whenever we look at doing activities in the US,
Speaker 3: it'll always be based in Springdown. Now we felt that, yeah,
Speaker 3: this is this is where we should be. We in
Speaker 3: a ground scheme of things. You probably look at it
Speaker 3: and think we wanted to be a Magoro, But for
Speaker 3: a first game, it was difficult to get the buy
Speaker 3: in from people to come to Madro being honest, because
Speaker 3: it's so expensive and there's a risk for them, whereas
Speaker 3: we've had really good relations with conquer Caffe Nations. We
Speaker 3: reached out to a few a lot of people wanted
Speaker 3: to come back but couldn't quite make it work, but US,
Speaker 3: Virgin Islands and Turks and Kkos could and we felt
Speaker 3: then that, you know, the US is the place to
Speaker 3: be for us, So that's where we chose.
Speaker 1: And the for those that may not know, it's right
Speaker 1: there in that four Corners area where it's northwest Arkansas.
Speaker 1: Then if you flip and go across the border into Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: there's some that are there on the eastern side of
Speaker 1: that border, right up there in that that cross section
Speaker 1: of Missouri and Kansas and Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Speaker 2: And it looks like the venue that you.
Speaker 1: Maybe right now that is looking like it's going to
Speaker 1: be Springdale High School right there right in the heart
Speaker 1: of the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's and that's an impressive venue as well.
Speaker 3: It really is impressive, and yeah, we're looking forward to playing.
Speaker 3: It really is amazing that like for us, you look
Speaker 3: at schools here, any sport, it's just a field, you know,
Speaker 3: for any sport, but to play in a six or
Speaker 3: six thousand capacity stadium which is a high school is
Speaker 3: absolutely mind blowing for us. But yeah, amazing in the
Speaker 3: sense that we're going to play there, and it only
Speaker 3: gives us inspiration when you look at nations like Greenland
Speaker 3: for example, with their Conker Caffe applications at the moment,
Speaker 3: and you think, yes, we are technically that side of
Speaker 3: the world. We're in a different region, but we have
Speaker 3: such good political ties to the US, we have good
Speaker 3: transport links to the US, we have good relations with
Speaker 3: CONQUERCAF nations.
Speaker 4: Why don't we put on our show and.
Speaker 3: See what we can do and see where it takes us.
Speaker 4: I guess see.
Speaker 1: Now that's the next step, is that for the Marshall
Speaker 1: Islands to take on Greenland.
Speaker 3: That I speak to their technical director, Saur and I
Speaker 3: speak to him quite a lot and he's a really
Speaker 3: good guy, very similar to that story to ours, but
Speaker 3: they are just a little bit more advanced than us
Speaker 3: and a little bit further down that line. But yeah,
Speaker 3: they're coming to London in October.
Speaker 4: So I did express some interest like that I will
Speaker 4: play you.
Speaker 3: But the downside I realized is it doesn't give us
Speaker 3: a lot of time to raise the money to do it,
Speaker 3: So I don't think it will happen, but yeah, we'll
Speaker 3: make it happen at some point, I'm sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the friendlies of the Marshall Islands in Greenland. So
Speaker 1: if you look back to day number one, when you
Speaker 1: dove into this project, when you and Justin and you
Speaker 1: all dove into this to sit there and get to
Speaker 1: where it is now, and I know a lot of
Speaker 1: folks will sit there and say, well, let's the next
Speaker 1: number of years. But at the same time, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it feels just like the other day when.
Speaker 4: You start, Oh it really does?
Speaker 1: I mean, is what runs through your mind about everything
Speaker 1: about where the entire soccer community has embraced the story
Speaker 1: and want to see you grow and want to see
Speaker 1: the Marshall Islands represented. What's it been like from day
Speaker 1: one to now to get to this next stage, in
Speaker 1: this next event coming up and on.
Speaker 3: I think for us it's been trying to maintain a
Speaker 3: bit of level headedness and trying to make sure that
Speaker 3: we don't one way, don't get carried away with ourselves.
Speaker 4: We also people don't get carried away with expectations, right.
Speaker 3: Because the common theme is that people wanted to see
Speaker 3: the eleven to eleven games since day one, and we
Speaker 3: realized quite quickly that wasn't going to happen because obviously,
Speaker 3: you know, we were starting out from fresh from scratch,
Speaker 3: so we needed to make sure it was sustainable. We
Speaker 3: needed kids playing, we needed adults playing. We needed to
Speaker 3: actually but this summer, for example, half the squad's not
Speaker 3: going to be living in the Marshall Islands. Half of
Speaker 3: it are Marshall people that live in different places. But
Speaker 3: we wouldn't have had that opportunity to do that in
Speaker 3: the early days. But yeah, it's just making sure that
Speaker 3: people stayed relevant or sorry, we stayed relevant to what
Speaker 3: people wanted to see. We've tried to make sure that
Speaker 3: we had good achievements and things we ticked off along
Speaker 3: the way foot sale last year being like a stepping
Speaker 3: stone with the international fixtures last summer.
Speaker 4: But this is now where people.
Speaker 3: Have been building towards and without naming names as a
Speaker 3: regional nation, which is very similar next door to the
Speaker 3: Marshal Islands, who've tried doing something similar and haven't got
Speaker 3: anything close to what we've managed to do, which is
Speaker 3: testaments what we've been doing, but also in terms of
Speaker 3: a kickstar, so I think they raised like six hundred pounds,
Speaker 3: whereas obviously we've managed to hit twenty thousand in two
Speaker 3: months and I think.
Speaker 4: That's just down.
Speaker 3: So we've kept the interest flowing, but we've also kept
Speaker 3: that appeal of the potential of what we've got coming up,
Speaker 3: and we've got massive aims for what we want to
Speaker 3: do after this. So this is now just becoming part
Speaker 3: of a stepping stone and we want to make it's
Speaker 3: a good one for us.
Speaker 1: Lloyd Auer's technical director of the Marshall Island Soccer Federation,
Speaker 1: batt and lead off here this morning because he's fighting
Speaker 1: allergies and I know that that when when you duck
Speaker 1: your camera out, I know that's when you're fighting.
Speaker 2: To dial it back in.
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, he's gonna ask a question and gonna
Speaker 1: turn my camera off and I got to fix something
Speaker 1: and then I'll come right back.
Speaker 2: I know exactly that feeling cool.
Speaker 1: When was the last time you were on the island
Speaker 1: and helping out on foot sal and everything.
Speaker 4: February? So yeah, a couple of moments go down.
Speaker 2: So what was what was it like back on the island.
Speaker 1: Last time you were there with all of the footstal
Speaker 1: and getting everybody acclimated to all of that.
Speaker 2: What was your last trip like, Yeah.
Speaker 4: It was really good.
Speaker 3: To be honest, it was different because the first time
Speaker 3: I went out it was a case of trying to
Speaker 3: uh just work out what was going to happen, what
Speaker 3: was the layer of the land. The second time was
Speaker 3: more around the tournament of Footsaluth tournament. The third time
Speaker 3: was more around coach education, but also see another islands.
Speaker 3: So Madro good because it allowed us to see the
Speaker 3: same people we keep seeing, but also how they're developing.
Speaker 3: But then we had the chance to go to Quaduline,
Speaker 3: obviously the home of the US military base, but uniting
Speaker 3: Quaduline the under the Soccer Federation banner and in e
Speaker 3: By as well is an interesting place. There we goes tactical.
Speaker 3: The EVA is an interesting place in the sense of
Speaker 3: it's one of the most poverty stricken places in the world.
Speaker 3: It's the sixth largest or sorry sick, most condensed population.
Speaker 4: In the world.
Speaker 3: You've got around twenty thousand people living in like three
Speaker 3: square miles.
Speaker 4: Wow, And it was eye opening because there is just
Speaker 4: nothing it.
Speaker 3: Poverty is probably is Key, you're king, and it's crazy
Speaker 3: to think that because the twenty minute boat right away,
Speaker 3: you've got Quadline, which has everything you have. An hour
Speaker 3: away by flight you've got Majuro, which is obviously in
Speaker 3: between the two. So it's yeah, it was eye opening
Speaker 3: in that sense, but the good thing for us was
Speaker 3: seeing how we could help there. We've got sessions happening
Speaker 3: there now, so yeah, it's a different trip in the
Speaker 3: sense of it was more around uniting different areas rather
Speaker 3: than just the technical side. But on the technical side
Speaker 3: we realized people play a little good. Quadleene played against
Speaker 3: majurow footsal and outdoor and that's where we've now managed
Speaker 3: to use a bit of a recruitment strategy for this summer's.
Speaker 4: Games as well.
Speaker 1: What's it been like for you and for everyone attached
Speaker 1: to the project to try and unite each and every
Speaker 1: island in the chain that you've been touching with. What's
Speaker 1: it been like to try that to have that unifier
Speaker 1: it for.
Speaker 4: In terms of having Quadleene on board.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Qua you know e by Quadleen Madiro.
Speaker 3: Well, because Quadlene has always had some form of soccer
Speaker 3: going on, They've had a soccer season for I don't
Speaker 3: even know how long in terms of a two month season,
Speaker 3: but it's it's very very very well organized, very well structured.
Speaker 3: But once soccer season has done, it moves onto the
Speaker 3: next sport, the next sport, the next sport.
Speaker 4: It just goes around.
Speaker 3: But we also realize, because that's happening, there will be
Speaker 3: players that have either playing at a decent level because
Speaker 3: it's competitive, but also they've probably come into Quajaline from
Speaker 3: somewhere else. They probably have a soccer background, and there
Speaker 3: are a lot of people that live there that have
Speaker 3: been there for years. Kids have grown up on Ireland.
Speaker 3: So for example, this summer we've got players from Quadline
Speaker 3: who have been on Quajalen or in the marsh Islands
Speaker 3: in general for twenty years. But have also got players
Speaker 3: that are young but we're born in the Marshall Islands
Speaker 3: and have grown up in the marsh Islands and are
Speaker 3: living on Quadaline. And yeah, it allows us to open
Speaker 3: up that player, Paul, but it also allows us to
Speaker 3: do more things and more opportunities for the guys from
Speaker 3: mager Roys go and play there and vice versa.
Speaker 1: What about the idea of unifying all of these different
Speaker 1: communities in socioeconomic backgrounds where you go from poverty, you know,
Speaker 1: you go from poverty to an island that's got pretty
Speaker 1: much everything to the one that's in the middle.
Speaker 2: As you're talking about, what's it like.
Speaker 1: To unite these three groups together through the sport of football.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's always been a game our aim
Speaker 3: as well in this game, because we've always said that
Speaker 3: our aim is to unite communities regardless of where they are.
Speaker 4: For Marshal's people around around the world.
Speaker 3: We had players from Masro who hadn't left Maduro before,
Speaker 3: and one of them was saying to me like, oh,
Speaker 3: this is the best weekend of my life. And you're
Speaker 3: thinking you've only gone to Quajli and it's but it
Speaker 3: is like night and day and then so seeing the
Speaker 3: opportunities we're given through the sport is unbelievable. But hopefully
Speaker 3: that's something that we can just build on in the
Speaker 3: future as well. But like this summer, for example, we've
Speaker 3: got yeah, players from quaj Leine, players from Madro, players
Speaker 3: from the US or a mainland US based We've also
Speaker 3: got a couple of Marshal Lease players that are Marsha
Speaker 3: Lea's but live in Germany, and so the difference then
Speaker 3: is even broader because it's you know, even for the
Speaker 3: guys that are US based compared to the European based,
Speaker 3: they've still grown up in a different way, different style
Speaker 3: of playing the game, and cultural beliefs, whatever it may be.
Speaker 3: It's going to be interesting to unite those different backgrounds
Speaker 3: and cultures anyway as one group.
Speaker 2: What's it like to get notifications? How does that happen?
Speaker 2: It's like, yes, I live in Germany and I'm of
Speaker 2: Marshall's descent. How does that work? How does that happen?
Speaker 3: So prior to the US links to the Marshall Islands,
Speaker 3: it was like a German occupation.
Speaker 4: A lot of Marshalles have ended up in Germany over
Speaker 4: the years.
Speaker 3: Over the years, and then one guy reached out to
Speaker 3: us saying on Instagram, I think saying look I'm marsh
Speaker 3: Lee's I play soccer or a football?
Speaker 4: Is that I think?
Speaker 3: And it was like, right, okay, But we get a
Speaker 3: lot of messages from people saying I want to play
Speaker 3: for the marshal Lians, but they're not Marshalle's.
Speaker 4: But this guy was adamant. I was like, look, if
Speaker 4: you can prove you are marshal Le's. We got brilliant,
Speaker 4: So he did.
Speaker 3: He went away, he came back with birth certificates his grandparents,
Speaker 3: and right, okay, fair enough, but he's only seventeen, but
Speaker 3: he plays in the German fourth Division. And then from
Speaker 3: him he found another guy that is also seventeen, also
Speaker 3: has Marshley's grandparents, who also plays in the German fourth Division.
Speaker 4: So like, okay, fair enough. So and then there was
Speaker 4: another one.
Speaker 3: Who is in Serbia who is marsh Lee's but can't
Speaker 3: play this summer, will be available for future games after that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's unbelievable how these different people just keep
Speaker 3: popping up from different places.
Speaker 1: All right, so what's next on the board to get
Speaker 1: ready for August in Arkansas?
Speaker 2: What can folks do? How can they help out?
Speaker 1: Just because you've hit the marker and the kickstarter project
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that they should stop.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, So we've got twelve eleven days left
Speaker 3: I think now with the Kickstarter, So if that can
Speaker 3: keep rising, brilliant because it just allows us to do more.
Speaker 3: But yeah, the next thing is if people are listening
Speaker 3: from companies who might want a media promotion in terms
Speaker 3: of worldwide media social media, the branding opportunity, just community relations.
Speaker 3: Doing something good for the community, then get in touch
Speaker 3: because we've got loads of different sponsorship packages ranging from
Speaker 3: I think it ranges from two thousand dollars to sixty
Speaker 3: thousand dollars, so it's endless opportunities to get involved.
Speaker 1: As always, my friend, it's great to see you. I
Speaker 1: know that we're both fighting. I know we're both fighting allergies.
Speaker 2: And that's but appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You know that you've got the keys to the kingdom.
Speaker 1: You can come in anytime.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 1: I know that we have our own WhatsApp group, so
Speaker 1: I know that if there's anything, just reach out. And
Speaker 1: it's great to see my friend. Fantastic that you made
Speaker 1: the marker on the kickstarter. I know that it's just
Speaker 1: the beginning of everything and looking forward to seeing you
Speaker 1: in August and Arkansas.
Speaker 2: My friend, Thanks for dropping back.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having us. Appreciate it.