Jersey To Appeal To CAS After UEFA Rejects Membership Application

Jersey will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after its bid to join UEFA "was turned down," according to Brent Pilnick of the BBC. UEFA's execs "will not allow their congress to discuss Jersey's bid as the island is not recognised by the United Nations as an independent nation." Representatives from UEFA visited the island, which is a crown dependency of Great Britain, in September "to meet with Jersey football officials." Jersey FA President Phil Austin: "This was the response we expected. ... In rejecting our application, the executive of UEFA have said that they're not putting our application forward to the congress. We don't think the executive have the authority to do that, we think it should go to congress." Jersey submitted a bid to leave the English FA and join UEFA in Dec. '15, following the acceptance of Gibraltar and Kosovo, which are "not independent nations" (BBC, 10/3).