Gibraltar to appeal to CAS after being blocked for FIFA membership

Gibraltar in action during their heavy defeat by Poland earlier this month

The Gibraltar Football Association will appeal against the decision by FIFA to reject its bid to become a member.

It will now take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport where it won a decision to be included by UEFA.

Gibraltar, which is a British overseas territory, played their first European qualifying fixture in September but lost 7-0 to Poland.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said: "(The) FA of Gibraltar cannot be accepted as a member of FIFA because it contravened the world governing body's statutes regarding independent territories."

But a spokesman for the Gibraltar FA said: "We expected this decision by FIFA based on their statutes which in their view states Gibraltar is not an independent territory so we have initiated our appeal to CAS. That's our next step.

"We are a UEFA member nation now and we will take it to the next stage - if you look at the history of our UEFA membership that's the way it went as well."

As well as Gibraltar, the Northern Mariana Islands, a US Pacific island territory, was also blocked from becoming a FIFA member.