The longest away day in world football? Team's 21,000-mile round trip for Cup match

AS Tefana had travelled almost 16,000 km to visit Parisian suburb Noisy-le-Sec for their French Cup match. That’s around 30 times the distance travelled by, for example, Plymouth fans if they need to pop up to Newcastle for an away day.

Amazingly, theirs wasn't the longest trip to play in the tournament: that honour fell to FC Trélissac, whose trip was 17,142km. That's 10,651 and a half miles - or, in other words, a 21,303-mile round trip, all for a 3-0 beating.

But Tefana's almost-as-epic journey was worth it, as it produced an equally epic match.

The visitors, from the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia, are the dominant force in their domestic game. But – with their country being a French overseas country – they are also entered into the Coupe de France at the seventh round, the point at which amateur and non-league teams meet those from higher levels of football.

Because France has retained some of its former colonies as ‘overseas departments and territories’, these tiny nations – mostly islands dotted around the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Ocean – are afforded similar rights to France proper.

Those rights include French citizenship, laws, representation in parliament and, of course, the Euro as currency; their privileges also include entry into their football cup competition. As a result plenty of teams from these far-flung regions enter (and usually exit) the Coupe at this stage.

Tefana came mighty close, leading Noisy-le-Sec 1-0 until the 75th minute, before going on to lose 2-1 in extra time.

Magenta are at least a relatively well-resourced club – without help, these trips would be impossible for the likes of Tefana, and not just because of the travel costs for a squad of players and officials.

For example, Tefana’s players needed to be issued with biometric passports to allow transit via Los Angeles; Magenta’s travel group needed specialised phone chips for their transit through Japan; many of the teams need hats, coats, gloves and specialised healthcare provision so they don’t get taken down by basic sicknesses to which they may not be accustomed. Some of the poorer teams even need new kit and boots.

And it’s not just the overseas teams that can need help – French amateur side Martigues had to travel to French Guyana, by Brazil, for their 2-0 win over Macouria. For that, they needed vaccinations against yellow fever!

All of this, of course, comes at a cost. It is estimated that the French Football League, with the aid of sponsors (whose additional logos sit side-by-side with the local businesses adorning the shirts of visiting sides), provides bursaries of up to £20,000 for each travelling team to fund a full delegation of around 20 people.

One such team was Guyanese outfit US Matoury, who visited Oissel, a French lower-league side. Their coach François Louis-Marie estimated the club’s trip cost almost half their annual budget of 50,000 euros – but it didn’t all come from the league.

“There is travel, accommodation, healthcare, thermal clothing, even new boots for some of the lads,” he said. “And we wanted to bring the rest of the squad, so we could foster team spirit and show the youngsters what’s out there in the world.

“With the support of the local community, we raised an extra 14,800 euros, in addition to the bursary.”

It was worth it – they have another big match lined up after beating Oissel on penalties.

Sometimes though the bursaries can’t get everyone over – Louis-Marie claimed that a few of his players, who all have day jobs, couldn’t get time off work.

After all, it’s a slightly longer round-trip than a drive from Plymouth to Newcastle…

@Reda_Maher_LDN / @GoonerTalk