UEFA membership would be key to development, says Jersey FA president
Tuesday 23 January 2018 16:19, UK
Membership to UEFA would play a huge role in developing football in Jersey, according to the president of Jersey FA, Phil Austin.
This week, UEFA makes its inaugural draw of the Nations League, which will see the 55 nations drawn into four groups in a competition to replace most friendlies, which will play a part in Euro 2020 qualifying.
Jersey are striving to become the league's 56th nation and, after having their first bid rejected by UEFA, have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for membership to the body.
"Football in Jersey is really important," said Austin.
"We've got a tremendous development programme for boys and girls and that feeds through to senior football.
"One thing we haven't got, though, is a regular competitive games programme.
"The Jersey Fooball Association have been looking for years into how we can achieve that and the answer keeps coming back to UEFA membership."
Gibraltar and Kosovo have each been given FIFA memberships and Austin feels Jersey merit inclusion alongside the smaller nations.
"Gibraltar had a long battle and, all credit to them, they stuck in there for about 16 or 17 years before they got membership," he said
"They went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is not something we wanted to do.
"It has been very time-consuming, it's been very costly for us, but we felt we had to do it.
"It's interesting that they're just introducing this Nations League, which is tiered into four groups, and Group D is exactly where we think we should be sitting.
"We've played against the Faroes and Gibraltar, and teams like that.
"That's our peer group and that's where we think we should be."
