Fumbling football feasts at the high table while stellar codes feed on crumbs

Virtually every street corner from the sprawling Peleng to Monarch, there is a group of sweating boys chasing a plastic ball, with improvised goal posts usually in the form of upright bricks.

This confirms that football is, by miles, the nation’s most popular sport. But decades of participation at national level has brought nothing but agony, except in 2012 when the Zebras made it to the Africa Cup of Nations finals, after years of trying.