Sport is an important part of Solomon Islands culture dating back to the early colonial period.
Cricket, Australian rules football, rugby union and horse racing are among the earliest organised sports in Solomon Islands.
National teams in association football and the related futsal and beach soccer have proved among the most successful in Oceania.
[2] They also, however, hold the less enviable record for the worst defeat in the history of the FIFA Futsal World Cup, when in 2008 they were beaten by Russia with two goals to thirty-one.
They have won all three regional championships to date, thereby qualifying on each occasion for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.