UEFA Congress must make the final decision on the Jersey FA's bid for membership ©Facebook

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has failed to uphold an appeal by the Jersey Football Association (JFA) against a decision by UEFA's Executive Committee to refuse it membership of the European governing but has put the ball back in the court of the latter's Congress.

CAS ordered that JFA’s application be forwarded to the UEFA Congress for consideration but has also dismissed JFA’s request to "take all necessary measures to admit the JFA as a full member of UEFA without delay". 

In December 2015, JFA submitted an application for membership to join UEFA.

The JFA had hoped that they could follow the example of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory, which was granted UEFA membership back in 2013.

In September 2016, UEFA issued a decision informing JFA that its application had been discussed by the UEFA Executive Committee and that a decision had been taken not to forward the application to the UEFA Congress since the admission criteria were not clearly satisfied. 

JFA filed an appeal against this decision at the CAS and the matter was referred to a Panel of CAS arbitrators composed of  Spain's José Maria Alonso Puig, the President,  and two Germans, Dirk-Reiner Martens and Jan Räker. 

A hearing was held at the CAS headquarters in Lausanne on  June 28.

The CAS Panel noted that the competent body for the consideration of membership applications is the UEFA Congress and not the UEFA Executive Committee. 

This is the reason why the appeal is partially upheld and that JFA’s application must be forwarded to the UEFA Congress for decision. 

The Jersey Football Association could still be admitted to UEFA after CAS decided that the Congress should have the final decision on their membership application, not the Executive Committee ©Getty Images
The Jersey Football Association could still be admitted to UEFA after CAS decided that the Congress should have the final decision on their membership application, not the Executive Committee ©Getty Images

The Panel concluded that, when deciding on whether to order the UEFA Congress to "take all necessary measures to admit the JFA as a full member of UEFA without delay", the Panel cannot proceed as requested by the JFA.

The ruled that UEFA Congress has discretionary powers to admit new members, and it is the Panel's understanding that, on the basis of the evidence provided, JFA does not fulfil the requirements of Article 5(1) of the UEFA Statutes to be admitted as a member of UEFA.

The JFA has been hampered by a UEFA ruling introduced in 2002 which states non-sovereign nations cannot be members.

Jersey, which has a population of around 100,000, is considered a county by the English Football Association.

Though Jersey is self-governing, it is considered a British Crown dependency and has the Queen as its Head of State, similar to fellow Channel Island Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

Gibraltar had been accepted as members of UEFA four years ago but they had originally submitted a request back in 1997 when the rules were different.

Graeme Le Saux, the defender who was capped 36 times by England, is Jersey’s most famous export in the football world.

Other similar nations which are currently playing international football include the Faroe Islands, a self-governing country territory within Denmark ranked 97th in the world, as well as other British overseas territories such as Anguilla, Bermuda and Montserrat.

Jersey are also three-time winners of the men's football competition at the Island Games.