FIFA's newest member?

Kiribati (in red) in action at the 2011 SPG ©NC2011

This story also appeared at InBedWithMaradona.com and World Soccer

As a membership application to join FIFA, Kiribati’s performance at this month’s Pacific Games must rank a dismal failure.

The Pacific islands have been trying to join FIFA for some time and a performance in New Caledonia that included not one but two 17-1 defeats seems unlikely to help a much-delayed application that finally appeared to be showing signs of succeeding.

Back in 2007, FIFA said that Kiribati was “in the formal process of admission but we expect them to withdraw their request in the coming months.” Ioteba Redfern, the president of the Kiribati Islands Football Association (KIFA), quickly denied any volte face but when Kiribati failed to take part in the 2007 Pacific Games football tournament, the membership bid trailed off. There was little sign of any subsequent progress until, at the behest of former Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson, FIFA set up a small nations working group to look into the cases of potential members. The working group categorised potential members into three groups from independent states to politically sensitive applicants.

As an independent state recognised by the United Nations, Kiribati was - according to the group – a “priority” and FIFA says that the KIFA application is the only one received from this most eligible group of just eight potential members. At a group meeting on October 27 2010, Kiribati’s application was discussed but some documents were missing. Thompson suggested requesting the missing documents and asking a representative of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) to visit Kiribati. “Otherwise,” says the notes, “FIFA would decide on the application without full knowledge of the situation.”

Prior to this meeting, Thompson and another FIFA official Urs Kluser carried out visits to three other potential members, taking in trips to Jersey, the Dutch territory of Sint Maarten and another tiny Pacific island chain in Tuvalu. Kiribati was snubbed and when first Kluser then Thompson left FIFA, an application that could provide U$D 250,000 in funding a year for the disparate island group seemed in danger. So Ioteba Redfern jetted into Switzerland in June this year to advance Kiribati’s case. His lobbying proved successful and FIFA plans a trip to Kiribati in conjunction with the OFC later this month (September). Then, says the world body, the “matter will be then dealt with by the Associations Committee in October 2011.”

With the agenda set, the 2011 Pacific Games were a chance for FIFA’s potentially newest member to show what could be achieved on the pitch. The I-Kiribati – as the islanders are known – first entered the Pacific Games in 1979, losing 13-0 to Papua New Guinea and 24-0 to Fiji. Kiribati’s only other appearance in a tournament with a five decade history was 2003, when losses included a 12-0 defeat to Fiji and an 18-0 savaging by Vanuatu.

With the FIFA application finally moving forward, New Caledonia 2011 was a new dawn and an opening 9-0 defeat to Fiji was an improvement. The Cook Islands edged past the I-Kiribati 2-0 and in their next match, Karotu Bakaae even scored; the problem was the 17 goals that went past Kiribati’s keeper Tiion Miika. Miika was dropped. Tongalua Akori took over in goal for the final group game against Tahiti and another new face drafted into the starting XI, Erene Bakineti, even scored but Akori also let in 17 goals.

Having started so promisingly, Kiribati fell apart and their performance provided a stark and embarrassing contrast to the effort by neighbours Tuvalu. Although beaten 5-1 by Vanuatu, 6-1 by the Solomon Islands and 8-0 by the hosts, Tuvalu took points off two full FIFA members, thrashing American Samoa 4-0 and drawing 1-1 with Guam.

Perhaps Kiribati’s performance in New Caledonia will make FIFA realise the KIFA really need some help? Or maybe the woeful showing will convince FIFA that its search for a 209th member might be better focused on Kiribati’s more adept neighbours Tuvalu, leaving the I-Kiribati stuck on the touchlines for even longer?

CAS rules in favour of Gibraltar

Gibraltar fans watch their national team at the 2011 Island Games football tournament

This article was previously published at PlayTheGame.org

FIFA’s attempts to help places left outside the world body are set to be hit by a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruling this week that has upheld Gibraltar’s controversial attempt to join the international game.

Documents obtained by Play the Game show that FIFA has ranked places outside the world body in three categories with Gibraltar amongst the lowest priority but CAS has ruled that UEFA must now do everything in its power to let the British colony into the European body by the 2012 Congress in Turkey next June.

The ruling could have major repercussions at FIFA as world and European champions Spain have previously threatened to quit all international football if Gibraltar is allowed to join UEFA and play internationals.

UEFA change of rules
Neither CAS nor the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) would comment but UEFA, which has 30 days to appeal the ruling, told Play the Game: “UEFA has received the CAS decision on the Gibraltar case and while reviewing it, took note that it does not grant immediate membership. UEFA is now studying its implications and possible next steps.”

The GFA applied to join UEFA in 1999 but shortly after, the European body changed its membership criteria so that all new members had to be recognized as countries by the United Nations.

This move was not made retrospective, allowing the four British Home Nations and the Faroe Islands to retain membership, and used to reject Gibraltar and bar subsequent new applicants such as Greenland and Kosovo.

Because the change was made after their application, the GFA went to CAS in 2006 and secured a ruling upholding their application but when Gibraltar’s potential membership went to a UEFA vote, the influential Spanish FIFA executive committee member Angel Maria Vilar Llona urged members to reject the colony. Of UEFA’s then 52 members, only England, Scotland and Wales supported Gibraltar.

FIFA’s list of priority
Now European football is likely to face yet another contentious vote supporting a place that FIFA’s own small nations working group believes merits the least attention and describes as ‘politically sensitive’ in the committee notes.

The group, which was chaired by former English FA President Geoff Thompson and led by Urs Kluser, met three times before outlining its aims and objectives at a world body meeting last October, which PTG has secured the notes for.

Kluser went on three missions to try and understand the problems faced by places left outside FIFA and visited the Pacific state of Tuvalu, the Dutch Caribbean territory of Sint Maarten and the British dependency of Jersey.

In addition to ranking places in order of priority from independent nations to politically sensitive cases, the notes, which FIFA has confirmed, read:

• The priority should go to the first category, while assistance for the non-independent territories (second category) could be considered only if channelled through their parent Member Association and/or confederation. FIFA must make sure that this would not mean a decrease in the assistance already provided by the MA and confederation
  
• To stress clearly that any assistance provided by FIFA does not mean political recognition of the applicant and should not be considered as a first step towards becoming a FIFA member
  
• Assistance should not include FAP or Goal projects

The latter is controversial as Greenland and French Guiana – a CONCACAF associate but not recognised by FIFA – have both received funding for Goal projects through the Danish and French federations respectively.

Working group on hold
FIFA president Sepp Blatter did visit Greenland last October but Kluser left the world body last year and with Thompson stepping down earlier this year, the activities of the working group have – according to insiders – ground to a halt.

At the 2010 meeting Costakis Koutsokoumnis, President of the Cyprus FA, which opposes attempts by the largely unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to play internationals, insisted that a “mechanism” be found to define politically sensitive cases. The notes show Thompson replying that this would be “decided on a case-by-case basis with the option of calling upon experts for help.”

As a result, the group’s next meeting scheduled for March 1 2011 did not take place and there is little evidence of FIFA, which had been engulfed by corruption problems for most of this year, making any attempt to engage with any of the identified as potential members.

No news from FIFA
Sources in Sint Maarten told Play the Game there had been no contact with FIFA since Kluser’s visit in 2010 and described the state of football on the Caribbean island as a “mess.” Recent visitors to Palau – another country cited by FIFA as needing help and eligible to join – reported no evidence of organised football activity at all and a member of the Monegasque Football Federation told Play the Game: “Concerning FIFA, we do not have any contact with them.”

Tuvalu will play in the football tournament at this month’s South Pacific Games in New Caledonia, along with Kiribati, which had applied to join FIFA. This application was discussed at last year’s meeting and a decision made to visit the Pacific islands.

That did not happen and the Kiribati FA had to visit FIFA’s Zurich HQ on June 17 to start a dialogue, which is now finally expected to involve an official visit to the islands next month.

The leisurely pace of the FIFA group, which some aspiring members had hoped would organise some form of competition, is also evident in another application from the Zanzibar FA, whose application was sent to Switzerland on August 27 2010. This was discussed and rejected on October 27 2010 but the Zanzibar FA only found out last week about the latest rejection, which follows another snub from FIFA in 2005.

“This [latest] request was examined by the Associations Committee in March 2011 and by the FIFA Executive Committee meeting,” says FIFA in response. “As Zanzibar does not fulfil the basic condition of being a country recognized by the international community they were informed on 21 June 2011 that their request had been rejected accordingly.”

FIFA has allowed the Football Federation of Kosovo (FFK) to join its transfer matching system to stop clubs in the former Yugoslav republic losing players without compensation, but will not accept the FFK as a member until Kosovo, which has been recognised by 81 countries across the world, is allowed into the UN.

This is unlikely for as long as Serbia’s ally Russia sits on the UN Security Council and an appeal earlier this year by the FFK to allow Kosovo to play international friendlies was rejected by FIFA.

“Why should they care about a small country like Kosovo when there is nothing in it for them,” says former Kosovo manager Edmond Rugova.

Relying on national associations
With little sign of help from FIFA, some places left isolated from the world game are increasingly relying on national associations at their mother country.

The Dutch FA trains coaches from its colonies and in 2008, the Fédération Française de Football staged the first Coupe de l’Outre Mer for French territories and overseas departments. Now a bi-annual tournament costing €900,000 to stage, this is the only competition open outside of their region to the likes of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion, which were all named in FIFA’s second tier of applicants.

The tournament is also open to those French dependents that have managed to join FIFA, such as Tahiti, a member since 1990, and New Caledonia, which was allowed to join in 2004 on the grounds that a vote for independence is scheduled for between 2014 and 2019.

In 2005, FIFA provided U$D 400,000 from its Goal scheme towards a U$D 907,000 artificial turf in the New Caledonian capital of Noumea and three years later covered the entire U$D 400,000 cost of extending a technical centre, again in Noumea. In Tahiti, FIFA also funded the whole cost of a U$D 400,000 technical centre at Pirae in Tahiti from Goal funds but many unaffiliated places outside the world body are increasingly left in limbo with no support.

“A lot of smaller nations fall into this Catch 22 situation - FIFA want to see so much before they give any help but there's no way to get to that point unless you already have some funding or people willing to work hard for free for a long time, which most places don't,” says Paul Watson, an Englishman who travelled to Pohnpei in Micronesia and organised a football league – an experience he chronicles in a book due out next year called Up Pohnpei (Profile 2011).

New Caledonia’s entry was cited by the Zanzibar FA in its latest application to join FIFA and has also been brought up by Guadeloupe.

Alain Soreze at the Ligue Guadeloupéenne de Football says: “We look (sic) the example of New Caledonia. But response [from the FFF] is Guadeloupe do not have the same political and administration statute like New Caledonia.”

For those British dependents aspiring to FIFA membership, there is only the football at the bi-annual Island Games football championship but Gibraltar, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Guernsey are hoping to stage a tournament next June, when the Mediterranean side could well have something off the pitch to celebrate too.

FIFA'S POTENTIAL NEW MEMBERS Category one - independent states not in FIFA Place Region Status Kiribati OFC OFC associate Marshall Islands - Not affiliated Micronesia AFC EAFF associate Monaco UEFA Not affiliated Palau - Not affiliated Tuvalu OFC OFC associate Category two - Non-independent territories Guadeloupe CONCACAF CONCACAF associate Greenland - Not affiliated Isle of Man UEFA FA member Jersey UEFA FA member Martinique CONCACAF CONCACAF associate North Mariana AFC EAFF associate Reunion CAF CAF associate Sint Maarten CONCACAF CONCACAF associate Zanzibar CAF CAF associate Category three - politically sensitive Catalonia UEFA - Gibraltar UEFA - South Ossetia UEFA - Kosovo UEFA - Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus UEFA - Source: FIFA

Falklands football

The Falklands in action against Gotland at the 2011 Island Games

This story appeared earlier on InBedWithMaradona.com

Forget Fabio Capello, meet an international manager with real problems.

“It can’t go on,” sighs a dejected Richard Franks. The manager of the Falkland Isles’ team is sat in the dug-out at Oakfield FC, a team from a working class suburb of Ryde on the Isle of Wight. “What we need are a lot of games at this level. Before we came here, we’d only had one in the last two years.”

Franks has just overseen the Falklands’ final group game in the 2011 Island Games football tournament. A biennial mini-Olympics for islands, the football tournament offers the only competitive outing for the South Atlantic colony’s beleaguered players.

For the Falklands, which has a population of just 3,100, the tournament has gone from one disaster to another.

A handful of players went to the UK well before the Games for a holiday, leaving nine to travel out a week before the Games - only for the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano to erupt.

Swathes of southern hemisphere flights were cancelled. With the Ministry of Defence refusing to operate the ‘air-bridge’ – the name for the flights going from Mount Pleasant airfield in the Falklands, via Ascension Island to the UK – the team had no choice but to try and go via Chile.

A flight from Stanley had to stop off in Argentina. When the players got to Punta Arenas in Chile, they were delayed for a day before reaching Santiago. Most of the squad got on a Madrid flight to London but there were no seats for three players, who had to fly via the Peruvian capital of Lima.

The squad finally assembled a couple of days before the tournament began and played a hastily arranged friendly with Eastleigh, an ambitious local semi-professional side from the Blue Square South league.

The result was a 5-0 defeat but worse was a broken leg for Ian Betts, who was under consideration for the role of captain for the side’s three Group C fixtures on the Isle of Wight.

The opening fixture was against Guernsey, who will play in the Combined Counties League on the mainland in 2011/12 and have won the Island Games football tournament twice. The Falklands were only down 1-0 at half-time. That was progress. But the Channel Islanders, whose ranks boast former Football League professionals such as Chris Tardiff and Ryan Zico-Black, rattled in four goals without reply in the second half.

In the next game, a poor performance saw the Falklands overwhelmed 6-0 by the Isle of Man leaving only the fixture in Oakfield to restore some pride. Captain Bill Chater, a giant central defender, put in a titanic showing but their opponents, the Swedish island of Gotland, ran in six goals watched by a crowd of 200 or more that was boosted by an army of ground-hoppers.

Creditably, the Falklands refused to give up and Rafa Sotomayor got on the score-sheet for his adopted homeland, who could have added a second but had to settle for a 6-1 defeat.

The qualification rules in the tournament are more relaxed than FIFA’s, only requiring a one-year residency. The manager of the Falkland Isles Gift shop, Sotomayor was joined in the squad by two fellow Chileans, a chef, Carlos Fajardo, and Patricio Balladares, a waiter at the Malvina House Hotel.

The eclectic squad also included a Georgian, Zaza Elbakidze, and Adam Glanville, a veteran for the team, who was born on another remote British colony in the South Atlantic. Glanville is a veteran with the national team and can recall better times.

Not so long ago, football in the Falklands was booming. The spur was a short tour of Chile in 1997 led by Patrick Watts, the Islander who over the radio relayed the details of the Argentine invasion in 1982 until being forced to lay down his microphone at gun-point, the invaders having reached Stanley.

By the turn of the Millennium, five teams from Stanley, including one comprised solely of St Helenians, played in a league. In 2001 the national team entered the Island Games football tournament for the first time, where expectations were exceeded despite an inauspicious beginning.

The Falkland XI began their campaign in the Isle of Man began with a 9-0 thrashing from the hosts but results improved. Eventual winners Guernsey were restricted to a 3-0 win, Greenland went one better winning 4-0 but the Falklands finished on a high, routing the Orkneys 4-1.

Travel remains expensive with athletes expected to make a significant contribution to the cost and the Falklands’ footballers sat out the 2003 tournament in Guernsey but entered again in 2005, making the long-trek north to the Shetlands.

The Manxmen inflicted another 9-0 pasting, while the Shetlands beat the Falklanders 4-0 but the Finnish island of Åland won just 2-1. Then at the community centre in Whiteness, the team put in perhaps their greatest ever performance against Saarema. The Estonian island XI included Victor Alonen, who had 68 caps for Estonia, but goals from Eoin Anderson and a Martyn Clarke penalty produced what is still the biggest shock in Island Games football.

Clarke is a divisive figure in Falkland football, having controversially taken up the offer of a trial with Argentine giants Boca Juniors in 1996. Then just 16, he was partly the victim of a public-relations exercise that caused ructions back home and in 2002 left the Islands for the UK.

Clarke played for the team at the 2009 Island Games in Åland, where the Falklands lost all three games, but now in his thirties he was not considered for the Isle of Wight jaunt.

With Clarke gone and veterans such as Glanville and perhaps Chater nearing the end of their international footballing careers, a vacuum has opened up in Falkland football with few players coming though and the game is in crisis with only three teams left.

Sullivan Blue Sox, Kelper Stores and Sealed PR did not even manage to complete the last league programme and the Falklands might not send a side to the next Games in Bermuda in 2013.

For Kyle Biggs, who toiled tirelessly alongside his brother Daniel for the Falklands against Gotland, the reason is simple.

“There’s not as much interest in football as when we were kids,” says Biggs, only in his mid-20s. “Football is still the number one sport but people are going off to play cricket now they have money to spend.”

Despite plenty of British, Dutch and French colonies joining FIFA, the influence of Argentina makes that idea not worth entertaining for the Falklands’ footballers - but cricket is another story.

Again spurred by an earlier tour to Chile, the Falklands became an affiliate of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2007. Argentina abstained but in a sport dominated by Commonwealth countries that protest barely registered.

In 2010, the Falklands played in the inaugural ICC Americas Championship Division Four tournament in Mexico and even beat Costa Rica by 39 runs in a 50-over match. With international recognition comes sponsorship – and interest from the islands’ tiny population.

For Richard Franks, faced with increasing encroachment from cricket, there is only one solution to save the dwindling role of football on the islands – and that is a radical one.

His face red in the hot Isle of Wight sun, Franks explains: “The Air Bridge is sponsored by FIG [Falklands Islands Government] and I’ve been wondering if they might give us seats once a month or even every two months so we could come over here.

“That way we could get 20 games a season over here. We’ve got to do something, it’s the lack of games; something has to be done.”

Perhaps, like Guernsey, the Falklands too might find their way into the English pyramid? Quite how they would get teams back to Stanley for a home game is another story.

First win for North Mariana

The Commonwealth of North Mariana Islands has won its first ever international match.

The game was only an U-15 game but the 2-1 victory last month over the former Portuguese colony of Macau in a youth tournament in Taiwan was fitting first ever-win.

The Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Thai communities on Saipan and some of the US citizens had played unorganized football on Saipan for years but the North Mariana Islands FA was only set up after a US lawyer, Peter Coleman, came to work on the main island of Saipan and set up a youth league to give his son a game.

The 14 islands – part of the United Nations trust territory in the Pacific but administered by the United States - first played internationally five years ago after invited being as guests to the 2006 U-14 East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) youth festival in Beijing (pictured).

Peter Coleman has since stepped aside but, driven by president Jerry Tan, NIMFA is now a member of the EAFF and an associate member of the Asian Football Confederation.