By Gareth Messenger
May 22 – Gibraltar’s bid to join European football’s governing body as a full member is gathering pace in London ahead of the UEFA Congress this Friday. If elected, Gibraltar’s national team would be allowed to take part in European competitions.
Last year UEFA’S executive committee decided to approve Gibraltar’s football league as a provisional member, in line with a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a move which angered Spanish authorities.
“I sincerely hope that the people of Gibraltar will not be denied the ability to support their team in European competitions as they have until now. I am not telling you that as chief minister of Gibraltar, I am telling you as a football fan,” said Fabian Picardo in an interview with AFP.
The island, just 6.8 square kilometres and home to about 30,000 inhabitants previously obtained a provisional membership in December 2006, but it was turned down a month later by a large majority at a UEFA Congress in Germany.
A Spanish government spokesman said in early April: “We are currently opposed to the membership of the British colony of Gibraltar of any international sporting federation. We will take the necessary measures in our power to avoid a situation which is contrary to the sporting strategy of the Spanish state.”
In contrast to the government position, the left-wing nationalist Catalan ERC, with 21 seats in the Catalonian parliament, “supports Gibraltar’s aspirations in parallel to its own claims for secession from Spain and its membership of official international sporting federations in its own right, separate from Spain.”
The Gibraltar league consists of six teams in the premier division, 10 in reserves and 12 in the second division with a further three women’s teams.
Dennis Beiso, who is Head of Communications at Gibraltar’s FA believes the territory has a good chance of making UEFA qualification.
“We are in a rather good position we are quietly confident going into the vote on Friday and the reason I say it has also been a simple process is because we have been assisted by UEFA in this lobbying compliant we have engaged in we have reached out to the other 53 associations,” he said.
“I think realistically we are looking to be competitive. We are a small country but we are looking to be among the pool of small countries that are competitive if not the most competitive. In terms of facilities we are aiming high we are aiming for a country our size with our resources we are looking to provide excellent facilities top of the range facilities that you would expect of a community of our size. I mean already our facilities are excellent but we are looking to improve them even more and we are very confident that we will be able to achieve that.”
Beiso also added that Gibraltar holds out hope to form some kind of future amalgamation with the Spanish FA in years to come should UEFA decide to grant them a full membership this week.
“We are ready and willing to engage Spain in a process of collaboration or discussion at any point. I think it makes perfect sense for Gibraltar to be engaged in with Spain and that door remains open and will always remain open.”
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