THE GATEWAY TO A BRIGHT NEW FUTURE
But Jersey ambitions rest on UEFA appeal
LITTLE Jersey will know on Wednesday whether they can still try and invade Europe.
The Jersey FA are taking their fight to join UEFA to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
They are appealing UEFA’s decision in December not to let them join the elite of European football.
The sunny holiday island, just nine miles by five, sits closer to France than it does England and currently the peak of its football season is the Muratti Vase, ending up with a game against Guernsey for the trophy.
But if Jersey were in UEFA now the island champions St Peter’s would be in the Champions League and runners-up JTC Jersey Wanderers would be playing for the trophy Jose Mourinho was so happy to get his hands on, the Europa League.
It’s an exciting prospect and one that Jersey FA chief executive Neville Davidson says must happen if football on an island with a population no bigger than Worcester is to thrive.
Gibraltar were the last minnow nation to get into UEFA after a long fight. They have benefited with £16.5m to build a stadium and £2.5m a year income.
But UEFA have tightened the rules and Jersey have a fight far more daunting than the annual Battle of the Flowers on the island every August.
When Jersey applied for membership in December 2015 they failed because UEFA said Jersey was not recognised by the United Nations as an independent nation.
The Jersey FA’s two QCs predicted that would happen and the appeal process to CAS started.
The UEFA executive would not pass Jersey’s application on to the 55 member nations either and that is also being challenged.
Knockback
Gibraltar are not an independent nation and they are in. So are Bermuda, Anguilla and Montserrat, all of them, like Jersey, a British Overseas Territory. Then there’s Kosovo, the Faroes, Puerto Rico, Aruba and New Caledonia, none of them regarded as independent nations.
“We put a proper business case together and was it December 9 2015 that we applied to UEFA,” says Davidson.
”The QCs said you will get the knockback, you’ve got to be prepared.
“These guys are hot and are doing it for far less than we would ever dream”
One thing the Jersey FA got out of their failed bid was a promise from UEFA that they would send someone to check out what the island offers.
“They said they’d see how they could help on the development side. We thought it was a PR stunt,” admits Davidson.
“It was only two weeks ago that they came. And that is since December.
“We were here, in the stadium, and the meeting room up there where we did our presentation looks onto the pitch. It was the half term, kids running all over it. There were about a thousand of them.
“We said when you leave here what do you do? You are saying you will help us develop. You’ve seen the structure here and it’s first class, you’ve actually said that to us.
“The answer is we can’t do much more. But now we’ve hit this ceiling and it’s just the bit on the top, we need to open it.
“These lads have been playing against each other for 15 years or so, they need that aspiration. The younger players coming through they needed it too.
“UEFA would put a structure in for 17-year-olds, 19-year-olds, 21s, fixtures, men and women’s. The money that would come in would be unreal.
“Our team that’s just won the championship, St Paul’s, if we were in UEFA, there is 250,000 Euros and the bottom rung of the Champions League for the club. Win that first game you get another E250,000.
“Our FA, we would be probably looking at one or two million.
“We would need a new ground because this one wouldn’t be up to UEFA standard. We’d keep this and build another – what would two top equipped grounds do for football on the island?
“But the fight isn’t about that, the fight the QCs have is about the politics.”
“I would love Jersey to get in,” says former England and Aston Villa star Brian Little who was Jersey’s Director of Football for two years.
“I used my contacts to introduce them to people and I am still around if they want someone’s phone number.
Structure
“When you see Gibraltar in there, the Faroe Islands, why not Jersey? They are not looking to be playing Germany and England and be beaten 100, but they want to be in the structure so their players can improve.
“There is a move within UEFA for a qualifying system, so that the likes of San Marino and Jersey would play each other in order to qualify to meet the bigger nations.
“That is what Jersey football needs to progress. I’ve brought them games against Leicester Under-23’s, they’ve played England C, all fixtures that raise the standard but they need more.”
Jersey decided not to go the Guernsey way and improve by joining another league as Guernsey FC have in the Bostik League in England.
There is a popular conception that Guernsey will get into UEFA that way and there was Channel Island outrage that Jersey were not following suit.
But Davidson points out that it can’t happen because Guernsey FC is a club, not a football association, so to try and get into UEFA is a nonstarter.
“There is talent in Jersey,” says Little.
West Ham, Chelsea, Fulham and Southampton watch Jersey Combination games on a Saturday. Seventeen clubs play in two senior leagues with women and junior leagues on Sundays.
“Brian undoubtedly opened doors for us and I like to think he really enjoyed his time with us,” says Davidson.
“When we lost our manager Brian stepped in and we won the Muratti under him, beat Guernsey 1-0 after they’d been saying we would never win against them again now they had players in the Ryman League.
“It was the Muratti centenary anniversary game. We had 4,000 in here. Brian was a local hero.
“He said he wanted to come to Jersey because he wanted to do something different. We’d go to Costa Coffee in St Aubin and put the world to rights.”
Jersey will have to wait up to three months to hear the result of their appeal and if successful will be back before UEFA pitching their case,
“I hope they do it. I hope they get in. They deserve to. They are good people,” says Little.