Gibraltar Football Association - FIFA Application

FIFA Application

The GFA affiliated with The Football Association in 1909, but is currently trying to become a full member of FIFA so that its national team is allowed to compete in more international competitions. This attempt was met with fierce opposition from the Royal Spanish Football Federation and has been unsuccessful to date.

The GFA's application for becoming a member of FIFA was filed in 1997. Two years later, FIFA confirmed the opening of the procedure and forwarded the GFA application to the appropriate continental confederation, UEFA, since according to FIFA statutes it is the responsibility of confederations to grant membership status to applicants. In 2000, a joint delegation of UEFA and FIFA conducted an inspection on the GFA's facilities and infrastructure. The Spanish Football Association strongly opposed to the GFA's application. However, in 2001, the UEFA changed its statutes so that only associations in a country "recognised by the United Nations as an independent State" could become members. On such grounds, UEFA denied the GFA's application.

Current FIFA and UEFA members include several federations which cannot be said to represent independent nations, such as the UK Home Nations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipei (which is only recognised by 23 countries and not by the United Nations), the Faroe Islands, and New Caledonia. French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint Martin each have national teams which, despite not being FIFA members, are allowed to compete at the CONCACAF confederation level.

The GFA appealed to the world's highest sporting court, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which in 2003 ruled that the GFA application should be handled according to the old statute. However, the UEFA continued to refuse accepting the GFA as member. In August 2006, the CAS ruled again that Gibraltar had to be allowed as a full UEFA and FIFA member, and on 8 December 2006, it was announced that Gibraltar had become a provisional member of UEFA.

However, full membership required a vote of the UEFA membership. Leading up to this vote, the Spanish Football Federation lobbied against Gibraltar's membership. The Federation's president Ángel María Villar attributed Spain's opposition to the Spanish claim over Gibraltar. He also claimed it was a political issue and referred to the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. On 26 January 2007 in the UEFA Congress held in Düsseldorf (Germany), Gibraltar's application to become a full member of UEFA was rejected, with 45 votes against, 3 in favour (namely, England, Scotland and Wales), and 4 undecided.

In 2012, UEFA's Executive Committee admitted the GFA as a provisional member as of the 1 October, pending a vote at its Congress in May 2013 to make it a full member. This is the first step towards FIFA membership.