Stichting Dutch Support Tuvalu

Stichting Dutch Support Tuvalu is a Dutch foundation which, since its establishment in 2009, has raised, mainly in the Netherlands, funds for football projects in Tuvalu, with the objective of obtaining membership of FIFA by the Tuvalu National Football Association.
Tuvalu is of the few recognised countries in the world which is not a member of FIFA. because of this the Tuvalu national football team cannot take part in the Fifa World Cup. History was made in 2007 when Tuvalu became the first non FIFA member to participate in an official World cup qualifying match. The situation arose when the regional governing body used the 2007 South Pacific Games, as the first stage of the qualification tournament for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and qualification tournament for the 2008 OFC Nations Cup.
In September 2008, Tuvaluan Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia and the President of the Tuvalu Football Association, Tapugao Falefou, visited the headquarters of FIFA in Zurich, hoping to gain full membership in the organisation.
Football in Tuvalu is the most popular sport and on the main island 1 on 6 people play football. Foppe de Haan briefly became the head coach of the Tuvalu national football team as a result of the actions of Stichting Dutch Support Tuvalu. Foppe de Haan started his tenure with a 3-0 victory over Samoa, which is only the third and also the second largest victory of Tuvalu. De Haan left his post after the tournament to rejoin Heerenveen's youth programme.

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