Gibraltar v The World

"FIFA has a huge responsibility to reach out and touch the world, using football as a symbol of hope and integration". - The FIFA mission

Gibraltar got dingied from having their national team become a full member of UEFA recently. This is despite the court of arbitration of sport giving it the OK and Gibraltar being a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

I know a lot of people think there are too many diddy teams but Gibraltar surely have as much right to play as Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Wales or the Faroe Islands. Where is the harm in playing Andorra, San Marino or Liechtenstein twice over the course of two years? The spokesmen for the Football Association, Deutscher Fußball-Bund (Germany's governing body of football) and Fédération Française de Footbal (The French Football Federation), amongst others, who have raised concern must surely be more afraid of a humiliating defeat to themselves rather than what is best for the game.

Spain's UEFA blazer was the main man in getting the votes to keep Gibraltar out, lobbying on the basis it mixes politics with sport, as Spain still claims the wee island with the monkeys as their own. The only time this request to play football became political was when the Spanish brought it up as, until that point, it was only about the people of Gibraltar wanting representation at the highest level. So the Gibraltan FA, 14 years the senior of her Spanish counterpart, was denied by 45 votes to 3 with only Scotland, England and Wales supporting her.

Also if you were to use the UEFA/FIFA guidelines that only sovereign states are allowed to become members then the Vatican City could put forth a team which would be a farce of the highest order. It also denies places like Greenland and Northern Cyprus, who are both countries in everything but name, a place to play competitive football. The people of Greenland are not Danish, they have their own language, culture and history but, thanks to some medieval king's pride and their own people's need for financial stability they could be denied the chance to do so.

FIFA are beginning to mock their own motto: "For the game. For the world." "For the game. For the world as decided by the ruling powers and not the people" may well suit a little better.

The Island Games, for instance, show that many of these smaller countries could be a useful team on their day. If the Faroes can get draws against countries like ourselves and Austria and hold their own against Italy and Germany in recent years who's to say other smaller countries, who once competed on the same level, couldn't do the same?

The Faroe Islands were the last nation to be accepted to FIFA without their own sovereign status and, since then, have gone on to prove their worth as a member. Not only in having a say in qualifications for both the European Cup and the World Cup but bringing through players such as Todi Johnsson who scored goals at the highest levels in Europe.

It always surprises me the amount of top quality players who have come from "diddy" countries: John Barnes, Eusebio, Ruud Gullit, Theirry Henry and Christian Karembeu amongst others. In the past players from Jamaica, Angola, Suriname, Guadeloupe and New Caledonia were forced to play for their former colonists as their own nations were denied membership to FIFA.

Those days are now gone, with a few exceptions, but great players from these countries still often choose to play for their European cousins. It's a throwback from days of yore which gives the major powers of the game a stranglehold over the smaller ones.

It's unlikely a world class striker will come from Gibraltar or Greenland but if they do they will be left with the awful choice of not playing international football at all or for a country they feel no affiliation with. As it stands anyone born in Gibraltar can play for any of the home nations, Spain or Morocco and any Greenlander will probably be forced to choose Denmark but could probably claim citizenship for Canada or the Faroes but they may as well be forced to choose between Zimbabwe and Japan.

These places are countries by right and not by decree. If the people of Gibraltar, Western Sahara, Greenland, Monaco, Tibet, Zanzibar, Checnya and Easter Island want their nations represented alongside the other nations of the world it surely must be allowed? We in Scotland should count ourselves lucky we have a national side at all.

It's not as simple as that however. Sealand, for instance, has it's own football team and there are teams representing Occitan, Sapmi and the Romani Peoples of the world. The logistics of those three teams getting together on a regular basis for qualifying reasons would be a nightmare and, even though they have been around since 1901, the Occitan FA would never be taken seriously as a federation. Sealand ever playing a game of football would be a nonsense of the highest level. Sealand's existence is a farce at the best of times but their inclusion in the NF-Board for non FIFA-affiliated teams makes the task of giving other countries a hint of professionalism look a long way off.

So at what point do we draw a line? I'm sure the Occitan, Sapmi and Romani people are proud of their race, culture and history but they are too spread out, over various recognised states, to ever persuade anyone to allow them to play in FIFA/UEFA competitions. Checnya, Tibet and other such nations still have their recognised borders which gives them a start.

As long as I can remember FIFA, UEFA and all other football associations have done their best to fuck over diddy clubs. I've saw the lie of all-seater stadia forced upon us, the mockery of low attendances used as an excuse to keep teams from the big boys. I've saw the governing bodies mock lower associations by letting the 4th best team in Germany into Europe's premier club competition but forcing the champions of Scotland, Greece, Hungary, Sweden and the Ukraine to play up to six games for the same right.

I thought it would be hard to be any more disgusted in the men who run the beautiful game but they're now pissing over the heritage of whole countries to make a few extra bob. I guess they managed it.

[Hayabusa]

Great article, it's pretty disgusting the way Gibraltar have been treated though hardly surprising.

It always surprises me the amount of top quality players who have come from "diddy" countries: John Barnes, Eusebio, Ruud Gullit, Theirry Henry and Christian Karembeu amongst others. In the past players from Jamaica, Angola, Suriname, Guadeloupe and New Caledonia were forced to play for their former colonists as their own nations were denied membership to FIFA.

A more recent example is Frédéric Piquionne who currently plays for AS Monaco, despite being born in New Caledonia has strong cultural ties to Martinique and left France to play in Martinique's national league, before returning to France where he was spotted by Rennes playing in the second division. He had turned down the opportunity to play for New Caledonia instead opting to play for Martinique in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, but has since been called up and represented France during their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, and been allowed to do so as Martinique aren't a member of FIFA.

The cultural identity of footballers is a topic i find quite interesting, as more and more footballers are choosing or holding out for the opportunity to represent their adopted homelands rather than where they were born or have parentage, like Michael Chopra and Leroy Lita for example.

[Girshkin]

With the supposed diddy countries, you do wonder what chance they have competing on the world stage; Gibraltar has just over 29000 residents and given the sheer size of the place (which btw, isn't an island ) there aren't that many sports facilities available, so their chances of producing world-class players is slim to none.

It does seem to be a political move on the part of Spain, but maybe the annoyance displayed by larger FAs that feel that playing a team of much poorer quality is wasting their time in competitions.

As they already have representation in other international competitions, such as Commonwealth Games, it seems odd to exclude them.

[¡Punk!]

Since doing this article I came across the argument that if Gibraltar got a team there would be a precedent and, therefore, places like Sark could get a team as well which would be the highest order of a waste of time.

The point being, however, Sark never have, and probably never will, ask to join UEFA or FIFA and quite happy to get humped off the other Channel Islands every few years.

[Tommy]

Good piece but there's a big voice against the 4 team rule for the UK, primarily among the smaller African nations. Mind you once we get independence it'll be a null point.

[Girshkin]

I've considered competing for Gibraltar in the sporting realm in the past. Don't get me wrong, I'm shite at every sport I've come across and despite being born there I have no affiliation with the place; but my thinking was that as there's so few others to compete against to get a place, if I can even get halfway decent at a sport I'd get a shoe-in for a place.

Just a thought, mind.

[¡Punk!]

Yeah. Tom still harbours dreams of playing for UAE.

Maybe you can start a shinty team or something Alibi.

[Tommy]

UAE Cricket Team maybe?

[¡Punk!]

Nah. They're half decent are they not?

[¡Punk!]

A wee article from Phil Ball talking about the Basque Country's exploits as a "nation" Euskadi Selekozia