UEFA delay decision on Gibraltar

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LJUBLJANA, Slovenia -- UEFA have decided to delay a controversial decision to grant membership status to Gibraltar -- despite being ordered to do so by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Meeting in Ljubljana on Thursday, UEFA's executive committee said they had decided to postpone plans to grant the territory provisional membership until the committee's next meeting on December 8.

They wanted more time "in order to examine new documents submitted shortly before the meeting."

A UEFA spokesman was unable to provide any further details about the documents.

In July, CAS ordered UEFA's Executive Committee "to admit the Gibraltar Football Association to provisional membership of UEFA at its next meeting."

The court also ordered the committee to put the question of Gibraltar's application for full membership before the next meeting of the UEFA Congress, due to be held in January 2007.

UEFA said that the hold-up would not have any adverse effects, "as there are no competitions (that would involve Gibraltar) taking place before December."

Independent states

UEFA had originally declined Gibraltar's request because of a rule in UEFA's statutes stating that membership could only be granted to countries recognized by the United Nations as independent states.

However CAS pointed out that this rule had only been introduced in 2001 -- two years after Gibraltar first filed its application.

While stopping short of ordering automatic membership for the territory, the court said that UEFA's Congress should decide on the Gibraltar FA's application "on the basis of the rules applicable at the time of the initial request. and excluding the application of the rules introduced subsequently."

The debate over Gibraltar's footballing future is expected to have repercussions far beyond the world of sport, since the Spanish government continues to dispute the rock's status as a British overseas territory.

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