Stamping Grounds

Stamping Grounds follows the Liechtenstein national football team through their defeat-strewn qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup. It was hard to see this principality's part-time players scoring even one goal, never mind adding to its meager international points total. So what motivates a nation of 30,000 people and eleven villages to keep plugging away despite the inevitability of defeat? Travelling to all of Liechenstein's qualifying matches, Charlie Connelly examines what motivates a team to take the field dressed proudly in the shirts of Liechtenstein despite the knowledge that they are, with notably few exceptions, in for a good beating.

Charlie Connelly is a freelance writer specialising in travel and sport. He will be presenting BBC1's THE HOLIDAY PROGRAMME this autumn, and has been featured on Radio 4's EXCESS BAGGAGE, as well as writing for the award-winning Scottish Sunday Herald Magazine