Gibraltar national football team

Infobox National football team
Name = Gibraltar
Badge = Gfatotal.gif
Nickname = "Gib"
Association = Gibraltar Football Association
Coach = Albert Buhagiar
Most caps =
Top scorer =
Home Stadium = Victoria Stadium
FIFA Trigramme = GBZ

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pattern_la2 = _borderonblack
pattern_b2 = _thinsidesonblack
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First game = regulated"
Largest win = fb|Gibraltar 19 - 0 fb-rt|Sark
(Guernsey, flagicon|Guernsey; 29 June, 2003)
"not FIFA regulated"
Largest loss = regulated"
Regional name =
Regional cup apps =
Regional cup first =
Regional cup best =

The Gibraltar national football team represents Gibraltar in football competitions and is controlled by the Gibraltar Football Association. It is not yet a member of FIFA or UEFA and is therefore not eligible to enter the World Cup or the European Championship. Gibraltar applied for UEFA membership, but this was rejected by the UEFA Board in 2007. The issue has been referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a ruling.

History

The history of the Gibraltarian national football side can be traced back to April 1923, when it traveled to Spain to play club side Sevilla in a friendly; two games were played and Gibraltar lost both. [cite news|url=http://www.rsssf.com/tablesg/gib-intres.html|publisher=RSSSF.com|title=Gibraltar - List of International Matches|date=29 June 2007]

The first competition the team entered was the 1993 Island Games. Gibraltar lost all of its matches, scoring only one goal and finishing in last place.

They had much more success in the 1995 Island Games, which they hosted. Despite losing their opening game against Greenland, Gibraltar bounced back to record their first competitive win, against the Isle of Man. Another victory over Anglesey saw Gibraltar finish second in the group, ahead of Anglesey only on goal difference, and qualify for the semi finals. There, they beat Jersey 1-0, before losing the final to the Isle of Wight by the same scoreline.

In the 1997 edition, two wins and two losses in the group stage, followed by a defeat to Shetland in a playoff, saw Gibraltar finish 6th out of 9 teams. Another poor performance in 1999 saw them finish 11th.

Results improved slightly in 2001, as they came 5th, and in 2003 Gibraltar recorded their biggest win ever, defeating Sark 19-0. Other good results against Greenland and Orkney saw them finish 6th out of 12. Despite these minor successes, Gibraltar did not even enter the 2005 tournament.

In 2007, Gibraltar won the Island Games for the 1st time, beating Rhodes by 4-0.

FIFI Wild Cup

In 2006 Gibraltar participated in the 2006 FIFI Wild Cup where it was ranked 3rd. In Gibraltar's opening match, they drew 1-1 with the hosts, the 'Republic of St. Pauli', before beating Tibet 5-0 in their second group game to qualify for the semi-finals. There they lost 2-0 to eventual champions Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. In the third place playoff, Gibraltar had a rematch against St. Pauli. This time Gibraltar were able to defeat the hosts, to finish in third place out of the six teams.

Application for membership of FIFA and UEFA

On August 25, 2006, it was proposed that Gibraltar will become a provisional member of UEFA. However, a decision on granting this was postponed in October 2006 [ [http://www.uefa.com/uefa/Keytopics/kind=64/newsId=464331.html UEFA - No decision yet on Gibraltar.] ] . The decision was made on December 8 2006 that Gibraltar will be made provisional members of UEFA: FIFA had announced two days earlier that their executive committee had "ruled that Gibraltar does not meet the statutory requirements to become a FIFA member", despite the fact that the Court of Arbitration in Sport had already ruled to the contrary [ [http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/federation/releases/newsid=108198.html FIFA - Clear declaration to defend the autonomy of sport.] ] .

On January 26, 2007 Gibraltar membership had been rejected by the UEFA Board with only 3 out of 52 votes supporting Gibraltar's claim. Spain was the strongest opponent to Gibraltar joining UEFA, even threatening to boycott any competition where the Gibraltar national team would competed in. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/6302889.stm|title=Gibraltar fail to get Uefa place|accessdate=2008-09-22|date=26 January, 2007|publisher=BBC]

The issue has again been referred back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a ruling.

Tournament records

Island Games record

:"*Gold background colour indicates that the tournament was won. Red border colour indicates tournament was held on home soil."

Wild Cup record

Honours

*Football at the Island Games::*Winners (1): 2007:*Runners-up (1): 1995

Team

See also

* Football in Gibraltar
* Gibraltar Football Association
* List of football clubs in Gibraltar

References

External links

* [http://www.gfa.gi/ Official site of the Gibraltar Football Association]
* [http://www.islandgames.net/content/previous_results.html Island games results]
* [http://www.wild-cup.de/spielplan.php FIFI World Cup results]
* [http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/20060825/NOTICIA228336434.html Spanish site about Gibraltar's inclusion into UEFA]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/tablesg/gib-intres.html All-time results at rsssf.com]