sussexpob wrote:bigfluffylemon wrote:Also, could someone please explain to me why Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Israel are members of UEFA rather than the Asian conference, and why the heck Gibralter has its own football team, given it's a non-self-governing territory?
Well Israel is easy - no one is mad enough to ever put in place a system that makes Israel travelling to places like Iran, UAE or Palestine for a game. There was (not sure now) fairly recently about 30 nations that banned Israeli's from entry, UAE I know still does, most of them would be AFC teams. So rather than face logistical, political and possible military disasters over football, it was thought best to put Israel with Europe.
Fair enough.
[quote="sussexpob"]
Azerbaijan while being in Asia, argued that the distances involved with matches in Asia meant more sense for them to play in Europe, which tbf is true. Its 4 hours to London by flight, and about 10 to Indonesia on the other side of Asia. Added to that you could make a case that if the Caucasus mountains are the border with Europe, then most of the North of the country is those mountains, so Azerbaijan could be considered partly in Europe with a bit of creativity and an ill defined, non exact border between continents. [/q]
It's closer to six hours London to Bacu, and probably eight or more to get you between Azerbaijan and Iceland. If you're going to use that logic, where does it end? Saudi Arabia is closer to Africa than most of the Asian countries as well - should it be in Africa (or Europe, for that matter?). Venezuala is closer to most nations in CONCACAF (other than Canada) than it is to Argentina or Chile. And Australia has a minimum of a six hour flight for any away game even in its closest neighbour.
I realise you have to draw the line somewhere, but it doesn't make much sense to me. And if you're going to use that logic, Kazakhstan is much closer to countries in the Asian group. Indonesia and Australia are a long way, sure, but they are a long way from anywhere.
(As an aside, it doesn't make much sense to me that Australia is in the Asia group either, but I think that was because Australia kept winning everything in the OFC but wasn't getting the chance to play other decent sides enough as an OFC member to develop competitively).
[quote="sussexpob"]
As for Gibraltar, they have as much right as England to have a team - England, Scotland, N.Ireland and Wales all do not satisfy the independent, sovereign nation test and should not be recognised by FIFA. Its only because Britain dominated FIFA governing for decades that its historically been allowed to happen.[/q]
So why Gibraltar and not Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and the Falklands? And why not Monaco?