Organisers of this month's Micronesian Games are hoping the introduction of football into the sporting programme is the first step towards members being recongised by the world governing body FIFA.
The largest sports programme in the Games' history will be on display when the eight edition gets underway in Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia this weekend.
A record 14 sports have made the cut, including staples such as athletics, swimming, weightlifting and wrestling.
Football has been included for the first time and the Sports Director for this year's Games, Jim Tobin, says, off the back of the World Cup that has just finished in Brazil, they're hopeful FIFA will take notice.
"Our country, the Federated States of Micronesia, we're not a member of FIFA - neither is Palau or the Marshall [Islands} - so some of us are trying to use these games to show FIFA to let us become associate members so that's one of our goals. We need development but it's kind of a two-way street: if we don't help develop ourselves they're not going to even look at us so we kind of have to run this tournament on our own - without any support from FIFA - and then show them the results of what we did and then they may consider that we can become an associate member of Asian Football, it wouldn't be [the] Oceania Football Confederation".
Teams have already begun arriving with the opening ceremony to be held on Sunday, and competition beginning on Monday.
