Bermuda win but first medals for Greenland and the Falklands

The football tournament at the biennial Island Games has featured 16 teams in recent years but the latest event suffered from a first move outside Europe. Getting to Bermuda put off many teams like the Isle of Man, whose association claimed sending a squad to Hamilton at would cost £144,000. 

With Gibraltar focused on an ultimately successful attempt to get into UEFA, the tournament was reduced to just four sides. IGA rules insist a team event needs at least six entrants but an exception was made, giving Bermuda, the Falkland Islands, the Norwegian island of Frøya and Greenland a chance to win a first ever football medal.

Preparations differed widely. As hosts, Bermuda had the easiest time. Most of the Norwegians came from the island’s main club, fourth tier side Frøya FK, making training simpler, but the Falklands’ appearance was constantly in doubt.

The South Atlantic side only decided to enter after first choice keeper Ben Hoyles changed his mind and agreed to go, but getting to Bermuda cost £3,000 per player and was only made possible after subsidy by the islands’ government.

Most Falklanders took an RAF flight from Mount Pleasant to the UK then flew back out to Hamilton. Some came straight from the UK, including Martyn Gilson-Clarke, who had caused a furore in 1996 after going for trials with Argentine giants Boca Juniors. Aged just 16, Clarke dined with Maradona, then found himself dragged onto a national talk show to discuss politics. His footballing ambitions were ultimately stymied and, finding life difficult at home, he moved to the UK.

In four previous Island Games football tournaments, the Falklands have won just three games. Cricket is in the ascendancy after the islanders were admitted to the International Cricket Council in 2011. This brought international opportunities, including a memorable win over Costa Rica and a Caribbean tour last year.

The Falkland Islands Football League was founded in 1947 and once had five teams. By 2011 this had dwindled to three and the league not completed. With the only pitch in Stanley re-laid, the league was not even played this year. To prepare for Bermuda, the ‘national’ XI had a few games against military teams.

Greenland is less politically contentious but with no roads linking any settlements in the Artic Island, preparation was again difficult. Nine of the 18 player squad are with club side B-67 from the capital Nuuk. Greenland lost 3-2 against a Nuuk XI but after flying to Denmark for a training camp found form.

After a 2-2 draw with Danish second tier outfit Naesby, KFUM Odense were beaten 2-0, Martsal/Rise overcome 3-1 and FC Svendborg thrashed 3-0. The Greenlanders arrived in Hamilton on a high but lost their opener 3-0 to Bermuda. On the same day, the Falklands beat Frøya 2-1 to claim the Small Islands Trophy for the two football sides with the smallest population.

A day later Greenland scored 12 goals without reply against Frøya, who only brought 14 footballers and had to call on a swimmer and golfer to bolster their injury-hit squad. The same day, the Falklands were crushed 8-0 by Bermuda.

The hosts’ coach Andrew Bascombe did not call on Nanhki Wells, whose goal for Bradford City in the 2012/13 play-off final made him the first Bermudan to score at Wembley, but Bermuda had plenty of experience.

“They had no less than nine full internationals in their team against us,” sighed Patrick Watts, a former FIFL president and in Bermuda to commentate for FITV.

Eligibility for the tournament only requires two years of residency and the Falklands had two naturalised Chileans, Andres Balladeres and Rafa Sotomajor, who scored the winner against Frøya.

To save players for a likely bronze-medal re-match with the Norwegians, Falklands’ manager Ian Bett rested players in the final group match and Greenland romped home 9-0. This secured a game in the final with Bermuda, who thrashed Frøya 8-0.

The Falklands recovered to claim bronze, crushing Frøya 6-0 in a match played in hot conditions. One of the Falklanders' goals came from 16-year-old Scott Thain, who came on as a substitute and was given a chance to take a penalty. His strike hit the bar, but Thain buried the rebound.

Patrick Watts adds: "The players received a bronze medal but it seems that it is not officially recognized because they were just four teams competing and the IGA deem that only gold/silver are officially awarded. But the players were given a bronze and are happy, regardless of the regulations."

In the final, only a contested 88th minute penalty subsequently scored by midfielder Drewonde Bascome separated Bermuda from Greenland. René Olsen, Greenland's coach, said: "The tournament was very good but it needed more participating teams. Bermuda were very strong but we almost had them in the finals. With some more tough games we might have been a bit sharper in front of the goal."

The hosts have been in FIFA since 1962, were backed by a home crowd and had an experienced squad. Silver and such a close score is a real fillip for Greenland, making the Arctic Islanders isolation seem all the more unjustified.

Falklands’ football is held back by Argentina’s long-standing claim over the islands. Greenland have home rule but need full independence to meet UEFA’s entry criteria. Instead, after their first footballing successes, both islands must wait two years for the next Island Games in Jersey before playing another meaningful fixture.

Falkland squad ready for rare shot at success

Veteran striker Martyn Clarke – the Falkland Island footballer who caused an outcry in the South Atlantic islands by going for trials in Argentina – has been included the British territory’s squad for football tournament at the 2013 Island Games in Bermuda.

In 1996, Clarke was offered a trial at Argentine giants Boca Juniors. While in Buenos Aires, Clarke got to watch Boca play Independiente with Diego Maradona and then went out for a pizza with the World Cup winner.

Clarke was also dragged onto a national TV chat show with Argentinian veterans of the Falklands War and asked to discuss the idea of having two flags on the islands, where more than 900 British and Argentinian solders died during the islands invasion and subsequent recapture by Britain in 1982.  

The Boca Juniors stint never extended past a trial but Clarke subsequently had spells with El Porvenir and Defensore before returning to a tense situation back home. In 2002, he left to settle in Britain.

Despite his departure, Clarke (fifth from left in the back row in the above squad shot from 2005) subsequently played for the Falkland team and scored a penalty in the side’s most famous victory. At the 2005 Island Games in the Shetlands, the South Atlantic side defeated Saarema, an Estonian island whose team include an Estonian international with more than 70 full international caps.

Clarke featured again at the 2009 Island Games in Aland but did not travel to the Isle of Wight for the last Island Games in 2011. His time appeared to be up, particularly as the Falklands were not certain of sending a side to Bermuda until the government stepped in to help cover travelling costs and Clarke is now among a squad of 20 players due to arrive in Hamilton on July 8 for this year’s event.

The Falkland team will be captained by Wayne Clement, who plays as a striker or forward, and be managed by Ian Betts. 

The veteran St Helenian Adam Glanville is not travelling this time but a number of players from previous Falkland appearances overseas will go to Hamilton, including Chilean Rafa Sotomayor and imposing central defender Bill Chater (seen in action below in red for the Falklands against Gotland two years ago in the Ryde suburb of Oakland).

A number of the Falkland players are traveling from the UK, such as Dan Biggs, Josh Clayton and Josh Peck.

With no prospect of any kind of international recognition at football, the game on the islands has suffered from the acceptance of the Falkland Islands Cricket Association as an associate member of the International Cricket Council in 2007.

The Falklkand Islanders first cricket match was only in 2004 but acceptance by the ICC has given the Falkland’s cricketers a level of opportunity that the footballers can only dream of. In 2011, the Falklands played in the inaugural ICC Americas Championship Division Four tournament in Mexico and even beat Costa Rica. Last year the islanders toured the Caribbean, visiting Barbados, Belize and Jamaica - a prospect way beyond the imagination of the islands' footballers.

Founded in 1947, the Falkland Islands Football League once had a five team league operating out of Port Stanley with one side made up purely of players from St Helena, another British territory further north in the South Atlantic.

At the 2011 Island Games, then Falkland manager Richard Franks suggested using the ‘air bridge’ - as the RAF link between Port Stanley and the UK is known locally – to enter a team in an English league. Franks left his position soon after and those plans have failed to materialise.

The decision to stage the 2013 Island Games in Bermuda has decimated the entries for the football tournament. Although hosts Bermuda will be clear favorites, the Falklands will have a chance to win a trophy with the biennial Small Islands trophy being contested with the tiny Norwegian island of Froya in the opening game at the Bermuda Athletics Association on July 14.

An opening victory is essential as, though beating the hosts the following day looks a tall order, if the Falklanders can then win their fixture on July 17 with Greenland - the only other entrants – that would secure a place in the final at the national stadium in Hamilton on July 18.

The Falklanders have won just three matches in four previous Island Games appearances: 4-1 vs Orkney in 2001, 2-1 vs Saarema in 2005 and 3-0 vs Alderney in the Isle of Wight two years ago, a game that Wayne Clements scored in.

Beating the Channel Islanders secured 12th place for the Falklanders in 2011. In Bermuda, Clements is already guaranteed a better placing and the chances of a medal of some hue surely seem possible.

Falkland Islands squad for the 2013 Island Games in Bermuda
BEN HOYLES
KYLE BIGGS
LUKE CLARKE
DANIEL BIGGS
MARTYN GILSON CLARKE
JOSHUA CLAYTON
ANDRES BALLADARES
CLAUDIO ROSS
RAFAEL SOTOMAJOR
WAYNE CLEMENT (Captain)
JOSHUA PECK
BILL CHATER
ZAZA ELBAKIDZE
STEPHEN ALDRIDGE
SHUPIKAYI CHIPUNZA
DOUGLAS CLARK
MICHAEL BETTS
SCOTT THAIN
IAN BETTS (Manager)

Greenland Island Games squad

Players from Nuuk club B-67 have dominated the places in the Greenland squad for the 2013 Island Games in Bermuda.

 
The biennial competition is the Greenlanders’ only regular international outing and 18 players will fly out of Denmark after a brief training camp on the plane to Hamilton. Although a handful of Greenlandic players play in Denmark, the only one included in the Island Games squad is Daniel Knudsen of Hirtshals Boldklub.

For some of the players on that plane, the competition represents a rare chance to see the world outside of their Arctic nation.

René Olsen from Nuuk is again one of two coaches to lead the team. He will work with Tekle Ghebrelul, who is also from the capital, and replace Tønnes Berthelsen, who managed the side at the last Island Games in the Isle of Wight.

Ten of the squad are from B-67, including veteran goalkeeper John Kreutzmann, who started out playing on the pitch for the Greenland side but as the years have advanced turned to goalkeeping, a position he occupied for the Greenlanders on their last appearance two years ago.

1.  John Kreutzmann – Nuuk (B-67)
2.  Loke Svane - Nuuk (B-67)                                            
3.  Kaali L. Mathæussen - Ilulissat (N-48)    
4.  Lars Peter Broberg - Nuuk (B-67)
5.  Nukannguaq Zeeb - Qeqertarsuaq (G-44)
6.  Aputsiaq Birch – Nuuk (B-67)
7.  Sakiu Lundblad - Ilulissat (N-48)                   
8.  John Eldevig - Nuuk (B-67)
9.  Anders H. Petersen – Nuuk (B-67)                          
10. Palu Petersen – Aasiaat (T-41)
11. Frederik Funch – Nuuk (B-67)    
12. Minik Stephensen – Nanortalik (Ek'aluk-54)
13. John-L. Broberg –  Qeqertarsuq (G-44)
14. Gazza  Zeeb - Uummannaq (Malamuk)
15. Maasi Maqe – Nuuk (B-67)
16. Norsaq Mathæussen – Nuuk (B-67)                  
17. Daniel Knudsen - Denmark (Hirtshals Boldklub)
18. Johan Bidstrup Nuuk (B-67-G-44)   
19. Tekle Ghebrelul - Nuuk (Coach)
20. René Olsen - Nuuk (Coach)

Greenland get ready to come out of hibernation

One of the world’s most reclusive national teams is preparing to come out of hibernation for their biennial tilt at success.

Greenland’s challenge for the 2013 Island Games football title in Bermuda in July has a greater chance of success than ever with just four teams entering the tournament in Bermuda: the hosts, Greenland (above in red), the British controlled South Atlantic territory of the Falkland Islands and the Norwegian isle of Froya.

The Greenlanders’ pre-game schedule starts with a game in the capital Nuuk on June 29 with a Nuuk XI. Greenland, which finished eleventh at the last Island Games in the Isle of Wight in 2011, then leave the Arctic on July 2 for a training camp in the Danish city of Odense.

Two days after arriving, Greenland will take on a side drawn from the Danmarks serie team and U19 College at Odense Boldklub (OB) before another friendly against Serie 1 side, Odense KFUM.

On July 8, Greenland will play a final game before flying out to Hamilton with a match against Svendborg, home to one of the few Greenlandic players playing overseas: Kazza Zeeb.

On July 9, Greenland leave for Bermuda. The best performance by Greenland’s men’s’ XI is a fourth place finish at the first Island Games football tournament in the Faroe Islands in 1989 but in the Isle of Wight two years ago the Greenlandic ladies side took bronze.

The Island Games football tournament has featured up to 16 sides in recent years but the cost of traveling to Bermuda by a group of islands mainly in Europe has decimated the number of entries. With only four sides playing in Hamilton, Greenland are at least certain of equaling that 1989 performance.

A medal of any shade would be a major fillip for the footballers on the world’s largest island, which – despite 80% of its landmass being covered by ice – does not have a full-size artificial pitch.

Although handball is popular, the Arctic islanders love football but have to play on hard pitches of sand often pitted with stones. The handful of grass pitches are in sparsely populated areas in the south, situated amongst land grazed by sheep.

Although Greenland gained greater self-rule in 2008, Denmark remains in control of foreign affairs, security, and financial policy in consultation with a home rule government. FIFA president Sepp Blatter has made clear in the past that Greenland needs independence and membership of the United Nations before the Grønlands Boldspil-Union (GBU) can join the world body and access funding for much-needed infrastructure like artificial pitches.

Although the GBU severed ties with the Danish association in 1996, the Danes secured U$D400,000 from FIFA’s Goal programme towards a U$D 500,000 artificial pitch in Qaqortoq (below). 

The pitch is not full size and Qaqortoq only has one club, K-33. The only other artificial pitch is in the capital Nuuk and even smaller.

Greenland’s manager Toennes Berthelsen (pictured on the sidelines of Greenland’s 2011 Island Games fixture with Minorca) is raising funds for another small artificial pitch measuring 20 metres by 40 metres in Maniitsoq.

What the GBU really want is a full-size artificial pitch in a major population centre such as Nuuk, where a quarter of Greenlanders live, to tempt foreign teams to visit. Danish club side Herning toured in the 1970s but the only other visitors have been from the Faroe Islands.

A proposal was put forward in the Greenlandic parliament in 2011 for full-size artificial pitches to be laid in Iluissat, Nuuk and Sisimiut. This came to nothing. The GBU hope that the idea can be revived but for now traveling abroad every two years is the only option for one of the world’s most isolated national teams – isolated that is, in every sense.

Gibraltar no longer an Outcast

This story also appears at PlayTheGame.org

After what is surely the longest wait of any country that has actually applied to join one of FIFA’s six confederations, the Gibraltar Football Association were today - 14 years after first applying – accepted into UEFA. 

After first applying in 1999, UEFA changed its membership criteria so that all new members must be in the United Nations. That was done solely to appease Spain, who had threatened to quit all international football, a threat that has proved totally empty. 

After three rulings by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that UEFA’s rule change was unfair, UEFA director Senes Erzik told delegates at the European body’s congress today in London that under the original statutes set out in 1999, Gibraltar was entitled to full membership. 

Erzik recommended to the congress that Gibraltar be accepted and the vote went through. Afterwards. GFA president Gareth Latin said: “It has been a long journey but football and all our love for the sport has prevailed. This is a momentous occasion for football on Gibraltar. We can now begin the next chapter of Gibraltar football, offering our football community the best possible future and development means.”

As he left the stage, delegates applauded including, according to veteran commentator Keir Radnedge, Angel Maria Villar, the influential president of the Spanish federation, the RFEF.

Unlike the four French territories and the Dutch island of Sint Maarten, which were admitted to Concacaf last month, Gibraltar can now expect a significant financial windfall. 

A couple of years ago a British military base on the Rock was handed back to the Gibraltarian government. On the southern-most point of Gibraltar, Europa Point had hosted cricket and rugby but will now be the site of a new 8,000-capacity international-standard stadium. 

Mark Fenwick, from Fenwick Iribarren Architects, the designers of the Espanyol stadium in Barcelona and a leading Uefa expert on stadia design, is helping with plans, which remain at outline stage. 

As a member of UEFA, Gibraltar can now apply for funding for this stadium from UEFA's HatTrick programme, which is putting up €2 million of the €3.5 million cost of a new stadium in Andorra. 

UEFA membership has other benefits. Last autumn, €40 million was paid out to clubs that released players for national sides in the Euro 2012 qualifiers. If as expected Gibraltar is included in the draw for qualifying for Euro 2016 – an event scheduled for the Palais des Congres Acropolis in Nice on 9 March – the Rock’s clubs will get another windfall. 

English side Portsmouth would get a payment for releasing the Gibraltarian midfielder Liam Walker; so would other clubs back on the Rock that supplied players to the Gibraltarian national side for Euro 2016 qualifiers. In tiny San Marino, a dozen Sammarinese clubs shared €566,038 from the Euro 2012 payout ranging from €4,193 for SP Cailungo to €104,822 to AC Juvenes-Dogana. For Gibraltarian football, which has no outside funding, that is a major fillip. 

Then there are the Champions and Europa leagues. A side losing in the first qualifying round of the 2012/13 Champions League received €340,000. Even losing in the first round of the Europa League is worth €100,000 regardless of the result. Although including Gibraltarian clubs in Europe could be confusing, however, as the colony has its own Manchester United, formed back in 1957 and which plays in the Rock's first division. 

The chances of Gibraltar getting into FIFA remain slim. The four French territories have no plans to take that next step and, as a British overseas territory, Gibraltar would surely have little chance. But, in the short term, getting into UEFA is enough. Gibraltar is no longer an Outcast – in Europe, at least.

Problems facing football in an independent Catalonia

This story also appears at WorldSoccer.com

With the Segunda División reaching its climax in Spain, Girona have a good chance of promotion to La Liga that would provide Catalonia with three clubs at the top level of Spanish football for the first time in six seasons.

Ambitious Girona would surely hope to last longer than Gimnàstic de Taragona, whose stay in La Liga in 2006/2007 lasted a year but there could be a bigger threat to the ambitions of Catalonia’s biggest football clubs and that is independence.

Unlike Scotland, no date has been set for any referendum and the Spanish government has banned a declaration of sovereignty approved by more than two thirds of the Catalan assembly. Although Catalans securing independence after nearly 300 years as part of Spain seems unlikely to many in Spain, the increasingly frustrated parties governing Catalonia could declare unilateral independence and stage their own referendum.

Any such declaration would make Catalonia more comparable to Kosovo than Scotland and create problems at international and club level for football, Catalonia's most popular sport.

Catalonia already has a national team that plays once a year as part of what Phil Ball in Morbo, his excellent history of Spanish football, describes as the Café Con Leche (white coffee for all) deal struck after the death of General Franco.

Under the sporting terms of this agreement, Spain’s 17 regions can field a representative side during La Liga’s Christmas break. Outside the Basque Country, Galicia and Catalonia, few regions take up this offer with any great enthusiasm.

Catalonia’s last game was a 1-1 draw with Nigeria on January 2. Some Catalans want more regular games for the ‘national’ side but the cost of persuading the likes of Brazil – 5-2 winners over Catalonia at Camp Nou in 2004 - to play, hiring a ground and other associated costs could easily cost €2 million.

If the Federació Catalana de Futbol (FCF), which is responsible for organising around 1,500 amateur, junior and women’s’ matches every weekend, makes a loss that could have major implications for the thousands of amateur players playing in the region.

So Catalonia’s opponents are usually sides cheap to fly in, like Nigeria, who in January were at a training camp in nearby Lisbon ahead of the 2013 African Cup of Nations. Although Nigeria would go on to win the Cup of Nations in South Africa, Catalonia’s last opponents were seen by many fans as a let-down; certainly from the national teams that Jordi Casals anticipated attracting on taking over as FCF president in 2009.

Casals had grand plans, including persuading big teams before World Cups and European Championships to use Barcelona as a base for a pre-tournament training camp. The Catalan capital has impressive sporting facilities – a legacy from the 1992 Olympic Games – and Catalonia would have provided decent opposition on the pitch.

As a statement of intent, Casals recruited Johan Cruyff – a former player and manager at Barca and revered in Catalonia – as national manager but those plans never materialised. Casals fell out with many people at the FCF before standing down and being replaced by Andreu Subies.

On January 2, just 27,234 turned up to Espanyol’s stadium say ‘Comiat’ to Johan Cruyff. That attendance was partly due to the opposition and the game being at Espanyol’s Estadi Cornellà-El Prat rather than Camp Nou – the spiritual home of Catalan football – but also a reflection on Cruyff’s selection policy.

Previously, the Catalan selection featured players from Girona, Gimnàstic and CE Sabadell, a dormitory town outside Barcelona. Cruyff, however, choose players solely from two clubs. Nine came from Barcelona, including Gerard Pique, Carlos Puyol and Sergio González, who scored Catalonia’s goal after three minutes. The rest of the team were drawn from Espanyol. That was hardly an inclusive selection for a game that was, after all, one aimed at proving representative of Catalonia.

Barca and Espanyol are the best known Catalan clubs but could face a particularly testing time if Catalonia wins independence and sets up a stand-alone Catalonia league. 

What that league might look like was established last year when Plataforma ProSeleccions Esportives Catalanes – a Catalan lobby group that aims to secure international sporting recognition for Catalonia – asked the presidents of a dozen leading Catalan clubs to sign an agreement supporting the idea of an independent Catalonia.

HOW A CATALAN PREMIER LEAGUE MIGHT LOOK?

Club	Founded	Capacity
FC Barcelona	1899	98,787
RCD Espanyol	1900	40,500
Girona FC	1930	9,282
Gimnàstic	1914	17,500
CE Sabadell	1903	12,000
CF Badalona	1903	10,000
UE Llagostera	1947	1,500
Lleida Esportiu CF*	1939	13,500
AE Prat	1945	300
CF Reus Deportiu	1909	4,500
UE Sant Andreu	1925	6,557
L'Hospitalet	1957	6,294
*Lérida Balompié-AEM founded 1939

At a ceremony led by Artur Mas, president of the Catalan parliament, Subies and the presidents of the 11 Catalan clubs, including Sandro Rosell of Barca, Ramon Condal of Espanyol and Girona’s Joaquim Boadas, signed the agreement. Cruyff and Pep Guardiola also sent messages of support but Miguel García, president of CE L'Hospitalet and a Spanish nationalist politician, refused to sign. A putative Catalan league was already down to 11 sides.

 

Francesc Serra, co-ordinator at Plataforma, which has secured international recognition for Catalonia in minority sports such as darts and Korfball, says: “There is some fear that things might change too much and we might lose the Barca-Real Madrid rivalry. We are telling people of course in the beginning this might be controversial, but after some years of independence it is clear that Catalonia will have what other countries have like Holland.

“Barca have stated they would keep joining the Spanish league, that is a bit clear, but it is not certain what will happen. Of course we will have a Catalan league that is for sure, but in the first years Barca and Espanyol might join this league and the Spanish one, or just the Spanish league. But it does not just depend on that, the Spanish league would have to invite them too.”

An angry split with Spain could prompt the Spanish association, the RFEF, to take a spiteful line and force Barca to play in an independent Catalan league. That would cause uproar amongst the other clubs in La Liga whose crowds are swelled by a visit from Barca’s line-up of superstars. Not only are crowds bigger for a visit by Lionel Messi and company, but ticket prices often go up substantially too, providing a windfall for cash-strapped La Liga clubs.

Espanyol also seem unlikely to give up their place in La Liga, while Boadas reckons that promotion to La Liga could be worth around €23 million to Girona – a sum that no club in the increasingly impoverished Spanish system could pass up. Gimnàstic were relegated from the Segunda División in 2011/12 down to Segunda B and missed out on the play-offs this season. That leaves Centre d'Esports Sabadell as the fourth biggest Catalan club, at least in terms of league placing.

The Estadi de la Nova Creu Alta has a capacity of just 12,000, which was rarely tested in the 2012/13 season with average crowds of 5,000. Under new Japanese owners Sabadell’s focus is on promotion in 2013/14. Japanese youth players are being brought over, senior ones could follow and there are even Manga cartoons in the boardroom.

Álvaro Montoliu Tarragona, Sabadell’s external communications director, says: “I think we are more interested in playing in La Liga, where we could have better players and maybe the opportunity to play in Europe. For the club and people coming to the stadium on a Sunday, they want to see the best players.

“The question is which players are going to play in a Catalan league? Are they going to be professional? Will Messi play in the Catalan league, or prefer to play in the Spanish league? That is the point. Sabadell have played just two games in Europe in our history, against Bruges in the sixties. This is history, but for us to be there again the best way is La Liga.”

Another problem would be a massive discrepancy in size of the clubs. Barca is one of the world’s biggest clubs with a stadium that holds nearly 100,000 people. Segunda B side AE Prat can seat around 300 fans. 

Independence for Catalonia looks certain to be a messy business in every sense. With so many Catalan clubs counting themselves out already, an independent top flight in a place so often defined in sporting terms by football could resemble the League of Wales more than a League of Catalonia.

No new FIFA members for the Caribbean yet

The five new members of CONCACAF are highly unlikely to be fast-tracked into FIFA membership at the world body's next Congress later this month in Mauritius.

Although South Sudan joined both the Confederation of African Football and FIFA inside six months last year, FIFA does not expect to welcome in Guadeloupe (pictured below at the 2012 Coupe de l'Outre Mer), Martinique, French Guiana and Saint Martin, or the Dutch island of Sint Maarten.

A FIFA spokesperson said: “The admittance of the 5 member associations to CONCACAF (Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, St Martin & St Maarten) does not imply automatic or direct membership to FIFA. Any association seeking affiliation to FIFA must observe FIFA’s regulations related to the subject.

“The admission of football associations to FIFA is referred to in many provisions of the FIFA Statutes and in specific regulations. In particular, art. 10 par. 1 of the FIFA Statutes stipulates that: 

"Any Association which is responsible for organising and supervising football in its country may become a Member of FIFA. In this context, the expression “country” shall refer to an independent state recognised by the international community. Furthermore, and as contemplated in such article, any candidate must have reached a good level of development in terms of championships, infrastructures, etc.”

Although Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana have well developed leagues, the infrastructure is less developed in Saint Martin and Sint Maarten, the Dutch controlled side of the same island.

There have been some suggestions that all five islands had the support of either the French or Dutch national associations, but this is also not the case, certainly for Sint Maarten.

Saint Martin is unable to take part in the biennial Coupe de l'Outre Mer for French overseas territories or departments because the island's association was simply too slow in contacting the French federation, the FFF, after the first competition was staged in 2008. 

Instead, the tiny North American territory of St Pierre et Miquelon took the last remaining place of what is now an eight team competition, but St Pierre will not join Concacaf because traveling to matches is both lengthy and very expensive for an association with just three clubs.

Sint Maarten do not take part in the annual ABCS for Dutch-speaking teams in the Caribbean and are unlikely to either.

“The ABCS Cup is all about Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and Suriname,” says Kenneth Jaliens, the manager of Suriname. “That’s why the name is ABCS.”

Surinam are not even in touch with the fledgling association on Sint Maarten. Jaliens says the Surinaamse Voetbal Bond relies on the Dutch FA for contact but the KNVB is not in touch with the Sint Maarten association.

The KNVB is working with FIFA to develop pitches at Antriol and Rincon and a mini-pitch at North Salina on Bonaire, another Dutch-controlled Caribbean island that was welcomed as an associate member of Concacaf recently and does play in the ABCS Cup, but there has been no contact whatsoever with Sint Maarten.

Johan van Geijn, international co-ordinator at the KNVB, says: “We currently have no contacts with St Maarten FA and we don’t know who’s in charge. Our last interventions were a few years ago and focused on youth.

“We do not facilitate the islands with finances. We facilitate courses and for Bonaire we have done something special with our Goal project: two new artificial fields and an artificial mini-field.”

Quite why Sint Maarten have been allowed into Concacaf is hard to gauge; certainly the other Dutch islands have no idea and the move looks increasingly like an attempt to bolster numbers ahead of a bid for more World Cup finals’ places – just the sort of ploy that Jack Warner employed in the 1990s.