Thursday, 7 October 2010

Strain at new regional federation


A version of this story appeared in a recent edition of Soccer Business World

Tensions between the six national football associations in the Indian Ocean that have clubbed together to form a new international association are delaying plans for a regional tournament.

The federation comprises Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Reunion and the Seychelles and a champion’s league featuring the top club sides from each territory should be staged before the end of 2010.

A tournament featuring the national sides from all six countries is also being planned. This will be staged regionally with the Comoros, Madagascar and Mayotte in Pool A and Mauritius, Reunion and the Seychelles in Pool B.

Although the club competition is highly likely to be staged this year, getting the regional version started will prove harder due to tensions between the six associations, which have very different political status. “Madagascar and Comoros are in FIFA and want all the power,” said the Mayotte manager Frederic Suflaj.

The Fédération Comorienne de Football representing the Comoros was accepted into FIFA five years ago, while the Fédération Malagasy de Football representing Madagascar has been a member of the world body since 1964 – the same year that Mauritius also joined FIFA.

The Seychelles Football Federation was welcomed into FIFA in 1986. All four are independent states, unlike Reunion and Mayotte, which cannot join the world body due to their political status.

Reunion is a French department, while Mayotte is a French territory. Reunion is an associate member of the Confederation of African Football and can enter clubs in CAF competitions but not a national selection in the World Cup qualifiers.

Like Reunion, Mayotte is affiliated to the Fédération Française de Football but only a French territory. Teams of local players from both islands were recently in Paris at the moment for Le Coupe de l’Outre Mer – otherwise known as the Overseas Cup – (pictured) which is an eight team, bi-annual tournament staged by the FFF for its overseas departments or territories.

Reunion, winners of the inaugaral tournament in 2008, reached the final again only to lose to Martinque on penalties, while Mayotte finished fourth behind Guadeloupe.

2 comments:

daikubo335 said...

Hello.

This is daikubo. I live in Japan.
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/daikubo335


I seek images of Mayotte and Reunion selection team.
I want to see these team's kit design.
I search by keyword, but I couldn't.

Could you send me these images?

Kind regards

daikubo335 said...

This is daikubo

P.S.

This is my email adress

daikubo335@yahoo.co.jp