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| Why Isn’t Guadeloupe a FIFA Member? Posted: 14 Jul 2009 01:51 PM PDT
The team includes some French Ligue 1, Ligue 2 and Championnat National (basically Ligue 3) players. That fact, coupled with the recent Gold Cup successes suggests that if this team was allowed to enter World Cup qualification in the CONCACAF region, they’d have at least something like a decent shot at making it. But that’s not going to happen any time soon, because Guadeloupe is not a member of FIFA and so not allowed to attempt World Cup qualification. Which leads to the question: Why not?
So maybe “Why isn’t Guadeloupe in FIFA?” is the wrong question. Maybe the real question should be “Why is Guadeloupe in CONCACAF?” Or at least “Why is it in one but not the other?” According to Wikipedia the answer is that… “…Guadeloupe is a member of CONCACAF and CFU [Caribbean Football Union], and thus eligible for all competitions organized by both. Indeed, according to the status of the FFF [French Football Federation] (article 34, paragraph 6): “[...]Under the control of related continental confederations, and with the agreement of the FFF, those leagues can organize international sport events at a regional level or set up teams in order to partipate [sic] to them.” There was an interesting discussion about the Guadeloupe national football team on the BBC World Football Phone-In this past weekend (click here to listen, right at the start) where Sean Wheelock suggested that Guadeloupe could become a FIFA member if France allowed it to do so. I’m not 100% sure that that’s true, at least not without Guadeloupe devolving it’s relationship with France so that it was no longer an overseas department. And that’s a whole other issue, separate from football. It’s also true that the Guadeloupe team benefits from not being a full FIFA member, because that frees it from certain restrictions. For example, the 2007 Gold Cup squad included Jocelyn Angloma, who played 37 times for France. And the current squad includes players who can represent Guadeloupe in the Gold Cup without ruining their future eligibility for the French national team. This may be a little unfair on other Gold Cup teams, but the current rule is that you can’t play for Guadeloupe in the Gold Cup if you’ve represented the French national team within the past five years. This is one of those messy situations where a team falls somewhere between existing and not. But it’s hard to blame FIFA or CONCACAF for the complexities of colonial or post-colonial politics. Instead, I think it’s worth putting this in context: Guadeloupe is in the same situation as fellow French “overseas departments” Martinique and French Guiana. No one’s asking why Martinique or French Guiana aren’t FIFA members, because Martinique and French Guiana aren’t tearing it up at the 2009 Gold Cup right now. So maybe the thing to do is to not worry about the politics of France, FIFA or anyone else, and just enjoy Guadeloupe’s performances. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 14 Jul 2009 06:00 AM PDT It was but a mere friendly against a walkover opponent, but in terms of symbolism it was on par with a World Cup final. More than six years after its last international game in Baghdad - and with an Asian trophy in its cabinet since then - Iraq returned to Al-Shaab Stadium and thumped fellow recent home-returnees Palestine 4-0. The game of football itself was largely irrelevant, though Iraq could certainly use the lift after a disappointing Confederations Cup trip, but what happened in the stands certainly wasn’t. Obviously there were massive security concerns, but that didn’t deter fans from packing the stadium to capacity and celebrating every goal as though they just won the World Cup. And, to a degree, they did. It may not have been the World Cup, but it was their World Cup. The type of story which makes this the beautiful game it is. |
Guadeloupe made the semi-finals of the Gold Cup back in 2007, and have (so far) made the quarterfinals of the 2009 Gold Cup (they play Costa Rica this Sunday, 19th July). | You are subscribed to email updates from World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010 To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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