JOIN THE QUEUE

Steve Menary looks at the various nations attempting to become FIFA members

Admission to FIFA always involves a battle, and the Caribbean island of Bonaire has gone to court to try to become the world body’s 212th member.

Kosovo and Gibraltar were admitted in 2016 but only after overcoming opposition from UEFA on behalf of their existing members Serbia and Spain. Gibraltar had to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) when UEFA subsequently changed its membership rules and the Dutch-speaking Caribbean island has now also gone to CAS.

New FIFA members must first be a member of a regional confederation, and the Dutch-speaking island of Bonaire – inhabited by 20,000 people – is already a CONCACAF member, but it also faces a political problem.

Bonaire was part of the Netherlands Antilles, which was politically dissolved in 2010. Curacao inherited the Dutch Antilles’ FIFA membership and is now a politically independent island within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Bonaire play in CONCACAF’s Nations League after they joined the regional body in 2013, but it is now a special governmental community. FIFA is understood to contest the island’s footballing independence from the Netherlands.