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There has been some complaint in England recently about the national team having to play 'minnows' like Andorra. There was criticism of that team's negative play and the fact that they chose to play their home game against England in Barcelona. In fact, it is not really clear what counts as a 'country' for Fifa/Uefa purposes. The four 'home' countries in the UK are an historical anomaly connected with the origins of the game. Andorra, Liechtenstein and San Marino are all members of the United Nations. The Vatican City isn't and doesn't have a team although the present Pope is said to be thinking of running one in the Italian League. Monaco is a club team in the French League. But what about the Faroe Islands? They are formally an administrative region of the Kingdom of Denmark and they elect two members to the national parliament, although they have self-government. They are not a UN member, although they make that very useful source of facts and figures, the CIA Factbook. And, since 1992, they have competed as a country in international competitions. A fact that does not go down well in Jersey, as I found out today.
Today I was rung by BBC Channel Islands Television and asked if I could do an interview on the fact that the Jersey 'national' side has received a three yearsponsorship deal of £100k. The money has come from Michael Wilde, former Southampton chairman who is a new resident on the island. Jersey and Guernsey each have island leagues, although the most eagerly awaited competition is the inter-island tournament between the rival islands (Alderney have won it only once as I recall). Jersey does have separate representation in the Commonwealth Games and takes part in the Island Games. But why should it not be a member of Fifa and Uefa like the Faroes? It is a Crown possession but it is self-governing (like Guernsey and the Isle of Man) and sends no members to the English Parliament (unlike the Faroes in the Danish case). My immediate response was that Fifa/Uefa would not be looking for any more minnow members at the moment given recent criticism.
Running football competitions on islands someway from the mainland is not easy. The Isle of Wight with good ferry connections is a different case: some people go over to watch Portsmouth and at least two island sides have competed at a reasonably senior level in the non-league pyramid. The most difficult situation is on St.Mary's on the Isles of Scilly: there are just two teams and they do literally have to play each other every week. The Isle of Man has run a pre-season competition in which League 1 and League 2 teams compete. However, clearly local sides would benefit from better competition. Perhaps there could be a European minnows competition with just the winner competing in the European national competition. But then there is the problem of how one would treat 'super minnows' like Luxembourg and Malta. Football author Charlie Connelly has even managed to write a rather entertaining book about the Liechtenstein national side. Meanwhile, what is clear is that Jersey has done rather well to get a sponsorship deal that would please a reasonably good Conference side.
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