The East Asian Football Federation is a group of international football nations (unsurprisingly, from East Asia). Currently a large number of these teams are fighting it out in the East Asia Cup Preliminaries.

Six countries, Chinese Tapei, Guam, Hong Kong, Mongolia, North Korea and hosts of the premilinary rounds Macao are fighting it out to join Asian powerhouses China, South Korea and Japan in the East Asian Cup finals.

However, there's a more interesting story behind this year's competition. A group of islands three quarters of the way between Hawaii and the Philippines known as the "North Mariana Islands" were recently admitted to the EAFF (East Asian Football Federation).

In the past the Islanders had played against other islands teams in the region such as Micronesia and Palau, often losing heavily. But this was their big opportunity, admission to the EAFF and a 2 legged playoff against Guam for the right to play in the EAFF Preliminary competition.

North Mariana's first ever full international match took place on the 25th March 2007. A young, fit band of Guam players arrived in the North Mariana Islands not knowing quite what to expect. What faced them was possibly the oldest international side ever assembled. Eight of the Eleven North Mariana players were aged over 40 years old, one was born in 1958. What is more astounding is that they managed to get by only losing 3-2 to Guam. Incredible.

Unfortunately for the North Mariana islanders they couldn't fight back from the first leg defeat and lost the second match 9 goals to 0 in Guam with Guam striker Zachary Pangelinan scoring five goals.

Small acorns grow into large trees.

FIFA has never really liked the idea of co-hosted tournaments, which is why the Korea/Japan experiment of 2002 will probably be the last ever co-hosted World Cup. But a quick glance over to Asia for the Asian Cup 2007 shows you that the AFC have no such reservations about it. Four nations; Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam will joint host the games this summer.

Much of the news coverage from Britain concerning these games has (unsurprisingly) come from the Australian camp. Mark Viduka, 31, has recently signed for Newcastle United and had announced his international retirement. However, a "backflip" - as World Soccer News put it, has led to Viduka coming out of his shortlived retirement to lead the Socceroos into their first ever Asian Cup.

They will come up against three teams that they will know little about. Hosts Thailand, Oman and Iraq (who's side just missed out on a medal in the last Olympics). Australia, as favourites for the tournament will expect to easily qualify for the knockout stages.

The Australians start the Asian Cup against Oman who are playing in only their second Asian Cup in their history and have little footballing heritage. However, they do boast Carlos Alberto and ex-Aston Villa manager Joszef Venglos among their previous coaches. This time it is former Argentine striker Gabriel Calderon who will be leading the Omanese into battle this time around.

Of interest to myself is the Omanese kit. Their flag is made up of three bars of red, white and green and thus the national colours of Oman are the same as Wales. In the last Asian Cup they sported a wonderful all red with green and white flashes kit that I felt would have done Wales proud. Unfortunately my emails to the Oman FA were left unanswered and I never did manage purchase a kit.

I leave for Mongolia this Saturday and fly back on the opening day of the tournament. I very much doubt Ulaan Bataar will be full of football fans looking forward to the Asian Cup - after all, it would take a near miracle for the Mongolians to qualify for an Asian Cup wouldn't it?

CONCACAF Gold Cup 2007

With summer now here and with no European Championships or World Cups to occupy our minds there is the small matter of the CONCACAF Gold Cup to fill our footballing conscience.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup is an international tournament for the nations of North America, however in recent years Brazil have been invited to come along to give the competition a little bit of glamour. This year however the glamour has been provided from French colony Guadaloupe who have managed to make it through from the group stages into the quarter finals after securing a draw with Haiti and a sensational 2-1 victory over the Canadians with two of the most sublime long range goals you'll ever see:



They face Honduras in today's quarter finals. A match the players must feel they have an excellent chance of winning. With countries such as USA, Costa Rica and an albeit weakened Mexico left in the tournament lifting the Gold Cup come the end of June but a semi final place may still be on the cards for the Guadaloupeans.