UEFA member Gibraltar will appeal FIFA decision rejecting its incorporation

Wednesday, October 1st 2014 - 07:00 UTC

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Gibraltar will play Martin O’Neill’s Republic of Ireland on 11 October in a Euro 2016 qualifier at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Gibraltar's football association has announced it will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after FIFA rejected its bid to become a member. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said the “FA of Gibraltar cannot be accepted as a member of FIFA” because it contravened the world governing body's statutes regarding independent territories.

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory disputed by Spain, but won an appeal to CAS to be accepted into UEFA and played its first European qualifying fixture in September - a 7-0 defeat to Poland.

Gibraltar will play Martin O’Neill’s Republic of Ireland on 11 October in a Euro 2016 qualifier at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

A spokesman for the Gibraltar FA said that “we expected this decision by FIFA based on their statutes which in their view states Gibraltar is not an independent territory so we have initiated our appeal to CAS. That's our next step.

”We are an UEFA member nation now and we will take it to the next stage - if you look at the history of our UEFA membership that's the way it went as well.”

Gibraltar won an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport to be accepted into UEFA in 2013.

Categories: Politics, International, Entertainment.

Tags: Aviva Stadium in Dublin, FIFA, Gibraltar Football Association, Joseph S. Blatter, Martin O’Neill’s Republic of Ireland, Spain/Gibraltar, UEFA, UEFA Court of Arbitration for Sport, UEFA EURO 2016.

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Briton
Sepp Blatter said the “FA of Gibraltar cannot be accepted as a member of FIFA” because it contravened the world governing body's statutes regarding independent territories,

Slightly confused here,
Are they saying that if you are not a sovereign independent country, you cannot join UEFA ??
Oct 01st, 2014 - 10:39 am 0
aussiesunshinee
cry baby Picardo does it again!! he wants to play with the big boys...LOL BUT FIRST TEACH THE UEFA GIB TEAM TO PLAY FOOTBALL lol lol THEY ARE GETTING NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL SCORES....LOL
Oct 01st, 2014 - 10:49 am 0
Briton
Silly response...
Oct 01st, 2014 - 11:11 am 0

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