Gibraltar MEP calls on new UEFA President to ensure that the Rock's application is not forgotten

5.31.53pm GMT Fri 26th Jan 2007

Reacting to today's decision by football's governing body UEFA not to permit the Gibraltar FA as full time members, Graham Watson, Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West and Gibraltar, has called upon the new UEFA President Michel Platini to use his tenure to ensure that Gibraltar's application gets a fair hearing.

Commenting from his constituency base in Somerset, Graham Watson MEP said:

"Today's decision was evidently one taken on political and not sporting grounds. Gibraltar deserves to have its own football team competing at national level and since September 2006 UEFA has been legally bound to accept it. Its failure to permit the Gibraltar Football Association as a full time member smacks of the kind of intense lobbying we have come to expect from the Spanish government on this matter. I have written to Michel Platini calling upon him to use the kind of influence he once had on the football pitch to ensure that the right sporting decision prevails."

At the beginning of January, Graham Watson MEP wrote to all 51 Presidents of UEFA Members urging them to make a decision on Gibraltarian membership on sporting and not political terms.

The Gibraltar Football Association is one of the ten oldest federations in the world, formed in 1895. Its application for UEFA membership has been pending since 1999, due to a chance in UEFA rules which meant that only those recognised by the UN as independent states could be permitted as members.

Following the decision taken in September 2006 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which threw out objections to Gibraltarian membership, UEFA has been legally bound to accept the application from the Gibraltar FA.