By Andrew Warshaw
October 1 – UEFA opened a political can of worms today by deciding to admit Gibraltar as a provisional member in a move that is bound to incur the wrath of Spain.
The tiny British colony has been knocking on UEFA’s door for years and recently won a ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that its application should be considered.
As a result, UEFA’s Executive Committee appears to have been pushed into a corner as it made a landmark announcement following a meeting in St Petersburg.
“The committee has admitted Gibraltar as a provisional member of UEFA as from today, 1 October 2012,” UEFA’s general secretary Gianni Infantino said.
“This follows a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in August 2011.”
Gibraltar, which has a population of 28,000, will become UEFA’s 54th and smallest national team, behind San Marino, Liechtenstein and the Faroe Islands, although it is unclear when they would be able to play their first official international match rather than friendlies.
Their most recent results include a 2-1 victory over English lower-league club Bury in January and a 3-1 win over an England C team in November last year.
But in March 2011, they did beat the Faroe Islands 3-0, a result that gave them some kind of credibility.
A decision on the admission of Gibraltar as a full member will be taken by next year’s UEFA Congress in London but today’s move seems bound to have political repercussions.
Spain still claims sovereignty over Gibraltar and is also worried that the case could serve as a dangerous precedent, with the Basque region and Catalonia perhaps trying to follow suit.
However, Gibraltar argues that it has one of the oldest football associations in the world and a thriving league since 1907.
UEFA has clearly been placed in an awkward position.
Its rules bar any region from outside the United Nations (UN) from joining, hence its opposition to Kosovo’s bid for membership.
Gibraltar is not a UN member either but the CAS ruled that as Gibraltar had applied before the rules regarding membership to the UN came into effect, they did not apply to the colony.
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