On 28 August 1979, the
Tuvalu national football team, captained by Karl Tili, played the first official soccer game against
Tahiti in the
Pacific Games at Suva,
Fiji. Tuvalu loses 18–0. Later in the tournament on 31 August Tuvalu wins for the first time against
Tonga with the final score of 5–3. On 1 May 2003, Tuvalu played a friendly game against
Fiji with a 9–0 loss. Tuvalu also participated in four games at the
2003 South Pacific Games again held in
Fiji, with
Tim Jerks as the coach. After defeating
Kiribati 3–2 in their opening game, Tuvalu became an associate member association of the
Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) on 15 November 2006. Tuvalu participated in the
2007 Pacific Games held in
Samoa, with
Toakai Puapua as the coach, and Petio Semaia as the captain. Tuvalu is the first country, that as a non-FIFA-member, has taken part in an official FIFA World Cup-qualification tournament. However Tuvalu fought hard against
New Caledonia (who were joint leaders of the competition) and only lost 1–0. Tuvalu then drew 1–1 with
Tahiti, with a late equaliser from Viliamu Sekifu. However the
Cook Islands defeated Tuvalu 4–1. in action against Vanuatu (2011) In recent years the association have received support from the
Netherlands. In 2011 the association signed Dutch coach
Foppe de Haan as the coach on a part-time and volunteer basis.
De Haan previously coached
SC Heerenveen,
Ajax Cape Town and the
Dutch national U-21 team. In the friendly match in the lead-up to the 2011 Pacific Games, with Tuvalu captained by Mau Peninsula, De Haan started his tenure with a 3–0 victory over
Samoa, the second largest victory of Tuvalu.
Alopua Petoa scored all three goals. De Haan's second match in charge saw a record 4–0 victory recorded over
American Samoa in the first match of their
2011 Pacific Games campaign, with a hat-trick from 19-year-old
Alopua Petoa. After losing 8–0 to
New Caledonia, and 6–1 to Solomon Islands, the Tuvaluan team drew the game with
Guam 1–1. The Tuvaluan team finished in fourth place in Group A (equal with Guam), with a record number of goals. This is the best performance by Tuvalu in an international tournament. De Haan left his post after the tournament to rejoin Heerenveen's youth programme. On 1 May 2012 Stevan de Geijter was appointed as the head of Youth Development. Former
NAC Breda and
De Graafschap coach
Leen Looijen was the Tuvaluan team's mentor during their three-month training tour of the
Netherlands in 2013, with the tour organised by the Dutch Support Tuvalu Foundation. From 2014 to 2016,
Toakai Puapua was the president of the association. He was succeeded by
Soseala Tinilau in June 2016. ==Competitions==