The Darfur Debut

This story also appears at InBedWithMaradona.com

The Darfur region is better known for poverty and the murderous Janjeweed militia, who terrorised and drove out many of the indigenous population in in western Sudan in a conflict that began over grazing rights.

What Darfur is not known for is football but that could be about to change. On Monday, a team of Darfur refugees will make the ‘international’ debut in the bi-annual Viva World Cup, which is being staged this year in Kurdistan.

With no games played, how Darfur fares in its first fixture against the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is hard to gauge. Particularly as the TRNC has an established and competitive league whereas the side that American manager Mark Hodson has whittled down from a shortlist of over 60 taken from refugee camps has yet to play a game.

That Darfur United – as the team are known – is even here is an amazing story as the idea for team came from the West Coast of America and i-ACT, a non-profit based in the Los Angeles area.

“We have been traveling to the refugee camps in Eastern Chad since 2005, each time connecting with the refugees through various projects, including soccer,” explains organiser Katie-Jay Scott

“Soccer is one of the few outlets that the Darfuri children and young adults have. Since 2010 we've been bringing sports equipment donated by soccer and volleyball clubs in America to the schools in the refugee camps. Last year we had the opportunity to ask Christian Michelis from the [VWC organisers the] N.F. Board if they would accept a team from Darfur. And, he said yes. That is where Darfur United and its journey began.

“Now we have several soccer clubs, organizations, schools, and individuals involved. Aid Still Required (ASR), also based in the Los Angeles area, has come on board as a partner to help make the trip to VWC, and the long term programs, a reality.”

Although the Kurdish organisers are covering accommodation for 25 members of each of the eight visiting teams to Kurdistan, teams that enter have had to cover their airfare. This has deterred some potential entrants, notably Greenland.

As the Darfur United party prepared to leave Chad, Katie-Jay Scott admits: “We continue our outreach on this front. It's been an amazing feat to raise what has been needed and we still have a little ways to go.”

She continues: “i-ACT and ASR have been fundraising since November 2011 to make this project a reality. It's required 3 trips to the refugee camps: introduction of the idea and establishing a project plan, tryouts, and now finally to pick up the team and take them to Iraqi Kurdistan. We've collected quite a few donations, including our uniforms and cleats [boots] which were all donated by Tracy McGrady, an NBA player. Xara Soccer has also been incredible in providing balls, cones, goalie gear, and training uniforms for the team.

“The project has been fully funded by generations individuals, schools/school clubs, local LA-area businesses, and soccer teams. We've sold Darfur United gear and hosted a large fundraiser here in Manhattan Beach.”

What happens next for Darfur United is the main issue. The TRNC are favourites to qualify form a group that includes a team drawn from the French region of Provence that is coached by former Valenciennes defender Philippe Burgio. Even if Darfur United do not qualify, the team will go on.

Katie-Jay Scott says: “Darfur United will surely continue after VWC. We plan to create an academy-like program that trains these initial players to return home and teach soccer to the kids and young adults in their own camp. There are 12 camps in Eastern Chad and all camps are represented in those attending the VWC plus a few others who were on the roster but unable to travel.

“These young men will continue to be trained by coaches who travel to the refugee camps and in turn share their soccer knowledge with their peers. We also hope to begin a soccer program for young girls, which wil be the first of its kind in the camps. All of this will likely start with a pilot program in Fall 2012 or Spring 2013.

“We also want the team Darfur United, also known as Darfur F.A., to continue to be able to play together and against other teams. Most likely, the next match would be in Chad, against Chad itself, or perhaps against an organized UN Refugee Agency team; not sure of the details or timing of this but we will work to keep the team playing together. 

“Darfur United is really more than just a team. It will not only be turned into a documentary about the team and their individual stories from Darfur to the refugee camps, but it will serve to continue to unite the Darfuris in a time when they are physically and spiritually disconnected because of violence.”

Donate to the Darfur United campaign here.

Kosovo: at last....

After years of obstruction from UEFA and its president Michel Platini, FIFA have over-ruled the European body and approved Kosovo's long-running attempt to play international friendlies. At the bottom of a news release on today's FIFA executive committee meeting a brief statement simply reads: "the Executive Committee has given its approval for FIFA member associations to play friendly matches with the Football Federation of Kosovo in accordance with art. 79 of the FIFA Statutes." 

Although FIFA tentatively allowed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to play a handful of friendlies in the 1970s after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the setting up of the breakaway TRNC, which remains largely unrecognised, the decision to allow Kosovo to play friendlies is of far greater importance.

The TRNC only played a handful of low-key friendlies that did not continue after a declaration of independence, whereas Kosovo's independence has been recognised by 92 other nations including many in western Europe, and FIFA's decision now opens the way for the Kosovars to play matches against the 208 full members of the world body.

UEFA and FIFA have previously agreed that Kosovan players who have switched nationality in order to play at international level, such as Fiorentina's Valon Behrami, who plays for Switzerland, and Lorik Cana of Lazio and Albania, can turn out for a recognised Kosovan team.

Switzerland, in particular, could suffer as Frederic Veseli - signed at the start of 2012 by Manchester United - and Bayern Munich's new signing, Xherdan Shaqiri, are among a number of Swiss players that could switch to Kosovo.

The idea of giving up the chance of reaching a World Cup finals or European championship in order to simply play international friendlies may not initially appeal, but having made this one step, more are likely to follow.

Although FIFA hardly trumpeted the decision, it is a clear snub to both Platini and UEFA, which is also struggling with a controversial attempt to join the international game by a would-be member.

Earlier this year, UEFA was forced to give ground to Gibraltar's long-running attempt to join UEFA - an attempt that has been repeatedly upheld by the game's highest legal body, the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

UEFA has agreed to put Gibraltar's application to a vote and allow the British colony to stage an international youth tournament. Perhaps the Gibraltarians should invite Kosovo?

Who needs to be in FIFA?

Does the world need FIFA? That’s a question often asked, particularly in recent years, and results from some parts of the globe neglected by FIFA suggest perhaps not always.

At the 2011 Pacific Games, Tuvalu beat one FIFA member in American Samoa and drew with another, the Cook Islands, despite being shunned by the world body, but recent results from the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are even better.

When United States attorney Peter Coleman arrived in CNMI - a United States-controlled territory in the North Pacific – a few years ago on work, he tried to find a game for his soccer-made son but there was none to be found. Coleman organised some and ended up founding a national team, which played its first game in 2007 but remains on the outskirts of the international game.

Coleman has since moved on. But the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association (NIMFA) goes from strength to strength as results from last week’s East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) Under-14s championships in Beijing demonstrate.

A 15-0 thrashing from regional powerhouse Japan and a 9-0 pasting from 2010 World Cup finalists North Korea are not results to dwell on, but others, including a draw with the hosts, were far more impressive.

China - less a regional force on the field but a major commercial one off it and still a one-time World Cup finalist – has a population of 1.3 billion. The population of the 14 islands in the CNMI is officially 44,000. In Beijing, NIMFA’s Under-14s forced an incredible 1-1 draw with the Chinese.

That result was no fluke. Ranked 177 by FIFA, Mongolia could only draw 2-2 draw with the Northern Mariana team, whose nickname is the Blue Ayuyu, the word used in the local Chamarro dialect to describe the Coconut Crab, a local delicacy.

The Blue Ayuyu boys brought two sides to Beijing. The second string lost twice to neighbours Guam – 2-0 and 4-0 – but the first XI went on to record twin wins. Chinese Taipei (Taiwan to most of us) have a FIFA ranking of 169, but were beaten 2-0, while Macau – FIFA ranking 198 – were beaten 1-0.

“I am very pleasantly surprised about the performance and result of our U14 Boys team in Beijing last week,” said NIMFA president Jerry Tan told local newspaperthe Saipan Tribune with some understatement. “Being the newest and smallest FA (football association) of AFC (Asian Football Confederation), two wins and two draws is an amazing result,”

Tan credited twice-yearly youth leagues ran by NIMFA as key to achieving two wins and two draws against FIFA members, all of whom have a considerably larger playing pool and FIFA funding beyond the dreams of anyone in Northern Mariana.

All FIFA members get a minimum of U$D 250,000 per year from the world body’s financial assistance programme. In 2010, FIFA was awash with so much cash that all members got one-off bonus of U$D 300,000. Except it wasn’t a one-off. In 2011, FIFA gave all 208 members another ‘one-off’ bonus of an extra U$D 250,000.

And then there is FIFA’s GOAL programme. Grants go towards projects such as pitches or training centres and are typically U$D 400,000 a go. Guam – a FIFA member since 1996 but also a non-independent country administered by the US – has secured three tranches of GOAL funding worth a total of U$D1.2 million over the past decade.

Helped by neighbours Guam, Northern Mariana joined the East Asian Football Federation, which is a subsidiary of the Asian Football Confederation. NIMFA is also an associate member of the AFC but further progress looks difficult.

In 2010, FIFA set up a Small Nations Working Group and visited some aspiring members, such as Tuvalu and Jersey. Northern Mariana were shunned. A subsequent report ranked potential members in three categories. Independent states were the priority. Places like Northern Mariana were ranked second. The group has since dissolved and its leader, Urs Kluser, left FIFA. His chief cohort, England’s Geoff Thompson, is no longer a FIFA vice president, leaving Northern Mariana only local avenues to explore.

In July, the Northern Mariana senior side will take part in the preliminaries for the 2013 EAFF championship. Their debut in 2008 produced three losses in three games but Guam only edged home 2-0. Tan is hoping for a win to boost his islands credibility at the AFC. As Northern Mariana’s schoolboys showed in Beijing, the size of the playing pool or even recognition by FIFA is no barrier to success.

Gibraltar edge forward

Gibraltar (in red) line up against hosts Isle of Wight at the 2011 Island Games

The article also appears at PlayTheGame.org

UEFA has given ground in Gibraltar’s long running and controversial battle to join international football by agreeing on a road-map on the way forward.

Six of Britain’s 14 remaining overseas territories are already members of FIFA, including Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, but Gibraltar’s attempt to play internationally has always been stymied by Spain.

After the GFA first tried to join UEFA in the late 1990s, the Spanish federation, the RFEF, threatened to quit all international and club football, prompting the European body to change its eligibility criteria so all new members must be recognised by the United Nations.

As this switch was made after the application was submitted, the GFA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which has repeatedly upheld Gibraltar’s case. As Play The Game revealed, the latest CAS ruling came in August, when details were also leaked of FIFA ranking new applicants in terms of eligibility. Gibraltar was lowest and deemed ‘politically sensitive’.

UEFA neither appealed against nor initially acknowledged this latest CAS ruling but in January 2012 invited the GFA to its headquarters in Nyon. The two sides have been in negotiations since and today confirmed the details.

UEFA and GFA roadmap

• Organisation by the GFA, with UEFA’s co-operation, of an international youth tournament in Gibraltar in October this year and other competitive opportunities Organisation of UEFA A-diploma and B-diploma coaching courses

• Organisation of UEFA refereeing courses for locally-registered referees

• Grassroots development

• Provision by UEFA to the GFA of specialist equipment

• Assistance with governance issues

“The GFA is excited about the prospect of working jointly and in collaboration with UEFA on these and other initiatives identified in the roadmap and leading to the full membership vote,” said the GFA in a statement.

A press briefing scheduled for Gibraltar on March 28 and to include UEFA deputy general Theodore Theodoridis has been postponed until late April. The Greek executive, also UEFA’s director of national associations, must now attend a FIFA meeting unconnected to Gibraltar.

The vote on Gibraltar’s application will be held at the May 2013 UEFA Congress in London, also host of that year’s Champions League Final.

A vote on Gibraltar was also held at a UEFA Congress at Dusseldorf in January 2007. Gibraltar garnered just three votes after furious lobbying by Angel Maria Villar, who has been RFEF head since 1988, and a vice president at UEFA and FIFA since 1992 and 2000 respectively.

FIFA denied Gibraltar entry on the grounds that the only football ground, the Victoria Stadium, is on a disputed isthmus between the colony and Spain. As part of the roadmap, UEFA has agreed to help improve the Victoria Stadium, but recently the UK Ministry of Defence handed over a military sports field on the other side of the Rock to the Gibraltar government. If further objections are made, the GFA now has the option to relocate to this site.

The RFEF did not respond to requests for a comment.

Greenland excerpt

Two excerpts from Outcasts! The Lands That FIFA Forgot have now been been published online.

A section from the chapter on Greenland has recently been published on InBedWithMaradona.com, while another excerpt on football in the Northern Cyprus can be read at PlayTheGame.org.

Kosovo update

UEFA’s executive committee will discuss Kosovo’s application to play international friendlies at a meeting between January 25-25.

Earlier this year, FIFA’s own ExCo rejected yet another application from the Football Federation of Kosovo to play international friendlies, leaving the FFK in international limbo as the country has not yet secured the official recognition from the United Nations that is needed to secure membership of the world body.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has since written to the president of the FFK, Fadil Vokrri, to explain that Kosovo’s attempt to play international friendlies would be discussed at the world body’s meeting in Tokyo last week.

Although a decision was again deferred by FIFA in Tokyo, Blatter has now asked UEFA to consider the application.

The FFK needs to join the European body before then going on to try for FIFA membership but UEFA president Michel Platini has consistently stated that only when Kosovo secures UN recognition will membership be allowed.

Zanzibar's season ends?

Defeat in the quarter-finals of the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) Cup leaves most of Zanzibar’s footballers with little to look forward to over the rest of this season.

Zanzibar qualified for the quarter-finals as the best third-placed team in group B after losing 2-1 to Uganda, drawing 0-0 with Burundi and crushing Somalia 3-0 and were drawing 1-1 with Rwanda in the quarter-finals until a goal two minutes from time by Meddie Kagere ended their CECAFA hopes.

The handful of Zanzibar players in the Tanzania squad for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers can look forward to qualifiers with Ivory Coast, Gambia and Morocco after the Taifa Stars squeaked past Chad in the pre-qualifiers.

For those Zanzibar players heading back from Tanzania across Dar es Salaam Bay there international schedule is far less certain.

The Zanzibar Football Association was formed in 1925 and the African island regularly played internationals but since joining with Tanganyika to form Tanzania half a century ago, the ZFA has been side-lined. In 1964, the Tanzania Football Federation joined FIFA and ever since the ZFA have been left feeding off whatever scraps the TFF is willing to hand out.

The situation is so bad that in 2002, Zanzibar broke away from the TFF and tried to join FIFA. In 2005, the application failed without the world body even hearing from anyone at the ZFA in person. After being snubbed by FIFA, the ZFA re-joined the TFF but the situation continued to deteriorate.

“It’s true that they are very badly treated by the TFF,” says Stewart Hall, a former manager of Zanzibar’s national side, who returned briefly this year only to depart just before the CECAFA Cup and be replaced by the Egyptian Abdelfatah Abbas.

Hall, who also coached the youth side at Birmingham City and the St Vincent and the Grenadines national side, adds: “The main problem with the national team is the lack of sponsorship, which means they struggle to play games at any level. People have tried to attract [sponsorship] but [have] failed miserably.”

This summer, members of parliament from Zanzibar brought up the issue in Tanzania’s parliament, asking where was the ZFA’s share of the U$D 250,000 a year that the TFF receives for football in both places from the world body’s financial assistance programme.

With no sign of any resolution, the ZFA tried to join FIFA again this year. FIFA guidance on new members in 2010 produced three categories from independent countries to non-independent territories and politically sensitive cases. Zanzibar was categorised as a non-independent country and not a priority in terms of help.

Yet again, Zanzibar were rebuffed. “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,” explains FIFA.

“The FIFA proposal was I think led by government but there was upcoming elections in politics and in the ZFA so both parties were trying to gain popularity,” adds Hall. For Ally Saleh, a Zanzibar-based football agent who helped draw up the second application to FIFA, the world body’s rejection smacks of double standards.

He explains: “It is very important for FIFA to understand the internal setup in Tanzania where the Union is governed by what is known as Articles of Union which recognises only 22 items specifically approved by the Constitution to be Union Matters. Sport is not one of them as such each side deals with it separately and with full autonomy.”

All this leaves Zanzibar’s players facing an iniquitous future. Zanzibar’s clubs can take part in the qualifiers for the African Champions League but these ventures are often short-lived. The five-tier club game, whose attendances have been hammered by satellite screening of the English Premier League, is low standard. For aspiring footballers in Zanzibar there is little to provide motivation.

“The football in the Zanzibar Premier League is nothing better than semi-pro with the players getting the same salary as a waiter in one of the many beach resorts,” says Hall. “The league [was] completed without a sponsor; no-one will invest because of previous discrepancies.” With a population of more than one million people, there are also plenty of footballers and, according to Stewart Hall, plenty of ability but to pursue a meaningful professional career involves relocating to Tanzania and that is not always easy.

Hall adds: “There is talent in the islands, the boys learn their football on beaches and awful pitches and therefore are technically competent. They are Muslim and therefore do not drink, smoke or chase women and are very easy to work with.

“The salaries in Tanzania are 3-4 times more than in Zanzibar [but] there is a big brother, little brother relationship between the two countries, and the mainland people generally look down on the islanders.”

Hall was only in charge of Zanzibar for half a dozen matches before leaving to work in Tanzania’s Vodacom Premier League for title chasing Azam FC, which is owned by a company from Zanzibar.

Since moving to Azam, Hall has signed eight of Zanzibar’s national side.

He explains: “The relationship between the Zanzibar players and Azam was totally formed by myself. I was looking for new players and the Zanzibaris I signed were considerably better than the players I released. It was in no way a club initiative, although the boss does look to help Zanzibari football when he has chance.”

Three of those players signed by Hall have gone on to play for Tanzania’s national side, while Abdi Khassim – another Zanzibari to make the Tanzanian side - has gone even further afield. Often known as Babi, Khassim is playing in the Vietnamese top flight for Dong Tam Long An. Khassim is Zanzibar’s captain but the struggling VDQG Eximbank side refused to release him for the 2011 CECAFA Cup. Had the ZFA been in FIFA, like all the other sides in the CECAFA Cup, then Zanzibar might have had some leverage. Instead, like their footballers they are left to swim against the tide.

Gibraltar update

Gibraltar's players celebrate on the pitch at the Victoria Stadium after beating England C

Gibraltar beat England C - a team of players from clubs outside the Football League - 3-1 last week.

An update on football in Gibraltar and the Gibraltar Football Association's appeal against its exclusion from UEFA is on the latest edition of BBC World Service's World Football show.

Guernsey & Jersey: neighbours but world's apart in football strategy

This article also appeared at InBedWithMaradona.com

Guernsey’s entry into the English football pyramid has produced some early success but don’t expect Jersey to try and emulate their Channel Island neighbours.

The first two home fixtures for the newly formed Guernsey FC (GFC) in Combined Counties Division One produced emphatic wins – 5-0 over Knaphill, 3-0 over Warlingham – with both games watched by nearly 1,500 fans at Footes Lane.

Although players with Football League experience such as Chris Tardiff and Ryan-Zico Black are playing for Guernsey, both are Channel Islanders and the side is very much an attempt to provide regular football for the island’s local players that is made possible by sponsorship from Sportingbet rumoured to be worth around £250,000.

Jersey have ambitious plans too, but these involve the island pursuing a higher grade of football not at club level but internationally. There are seven teams in Guernsey’s main competition, the FNB Priaulx League, but 19 clubs are affiliated to the Jersey Football Association (JFA), whose senior members believe that following their neighbour route into the mainland pyramid would fundamentally weaken their game at a grass-roots level. GFC is not the Guernsey Football Association but a new club; a misconception not helped by former GFA president Mark Le Tissier being briefly involved in both before leaving to focus on the new club side.

To pursue a similar plan in Jersey, members of the JFA would need to quit to form or new club, or an existing senior club, such as First Tower or Jersey Scottish, would need to join the English pyramid. So far, both options have been rejected. Instead, over the past five years the JFA has been pursuing a ‘meaningful’ games programme for their national side. Premier League reserve sides, such as Blackburn and Sunderland, have flown over for games, while at youth level international sides from the other Home Nations are regular visitors but Jersey’s attempts to join the wider international arena have been stymied.

Only places recognised by the United Nations are able to join UEFA – a move designed to placate Spain, who threatened to quit international football if an application to join the European body by Gibraltar during the 1990s was approved. The change in UEFA statutes was not retrospective, allowing the four Home Nations to retain their historic international status, but has succeeded in keeping out other international aspirants, such as the Gibraltarians, Kosovo, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus – and Jersey.

Jersey has a population of 87,400 – roughly double that of FIFA members Andorra, the Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein and San Marino - and while former England international Graeme Le Saux is their biggest name, there are significantly more of his ‘countrymen’ playing professionally than there are Andorrans or Sammarinese.

Brett Pittman features in the Championship for Bristol City as a striker, while Peter Vincenti and Curtis Guthrie both play in League Two at Aldershot and Accrington Stanley respectively.

Jack Boyle did not make the grade at Southampton, but Marco Zocchi was offered a pro contract at Bournemouth last year and Michael Weir – son of JFA president Ricky – recently signed a two-year contract with Portuguese first division side CD Nacional after an impressive year on loan last season at AD Camacha.

All these are younger players but, despite all this evidence that the JFA’s strategy is working, as a British Crown Dependency the island remains in international limbo. Jersey has as much independence as the four Home Nations – probably more in terms of taxation – but will never meet the UN’s membership criteria.

In 2007, the JFA wrote to Michel Platini and the UEFA president responded, confirming that there could be no exceptions to their statutes: Jersey’s international ambitions were seemingly stifled.

In January of 2008, outgoing Football Association head Geoff Thompson visited the island and took up Jersey’s cause. His mandate at the FA was gone, but Thompson was also a FIFA vice president and took up Jersey’s case.

Later that year, Jersey hosted an international tournament – of sorts – staging a three-team event with Madeira and Gibraltar and Thompson subsequently persuaded FIFA to set up a Small Nations working group to try and help non-controversial places stuck in limbo. This lobbying culminated in Thompson returning to the island with Urs Kluser, development director for FIFA’s ‘member associations and development division’, in April 2010. The visit was the third and final leg of Kluser’s expedition that had also taken in the tiny Pacific island state of Tuvalu and Sint Maarten - a Dutch administered territory that occupies half of the Caribbean island of Saint Marten.

But there was no breakthrough for Jersey and a double whammy followed: Kluser left FIFA last September and Jersey’s other main ally, Geoff Thompson, departed earlier this year. The international arena seemed beyond Jersey and that was seemingly confirmed by Guernsey’s move into club football – a move that could even endanger the historic annual Muratti Vase between the Channel Islands as this season’s game is just days before the end of the Combined Counties season.

The Muratti apart, Jersey’s main ‘international’ outlet is the football tournament at the bi-annual Island Games. Two years ago, Jersey won the title for a record third time beating the hosts Åland 2-1 but lost their title this year, going down at the semi-final stage in the Isle of Wight.

The JFA have not given up though and plans are being formulated to stage an 'International Challenge Shield' next June in Gibraltar that would feature these two sides, the Isle of Man and – depending on club commitments – Guernsey. All four sides are, like many French territories, stuck in international limbo but the likes of Guadeloupe and Mayotte do get to play in the bi-annual Coupe de l’Outre Mer.

Every two years, the Fédération Française de Football spend €900,000 staging the Overseas Cup for French territories, while the Dutch FA is helping organise the annual ABCS Cup for Dutch speaking countries and colonies. Could the Shield perhaps be the start of something bigger for those remnants of the British Empire that also need an international leg-up?