You could say the same about the home nations tbf but I think for the UK, nationhood is fairly vague, and it’s basically just down to who has their own independent footballing association
It’s a bit of a stretch to compare the nationhood of Gibraltar with that of the home nations though, it doesn’t enjoy the same status as them within the U.K. Gibraltar is basically just a British city in Spain.
I do think it’s worth noting that UEFA literally changed the requirements for membership after Gibraltar joined to stop it happening again. Jersey tried to join after the changes but got rejected despite being larger, self-governing and with just as distinct an identity, arguably even more so. So the other problem with Gibraltar is you create a double standard were this one particular Territory can get in but other Territories can’t. When you factor in how terrible they are it just doesn’t make any sense to include them.
You could say the same about the home nations tbf but I think for the UK, nationhood is fairly vague, and it’s basically just down to who has their own independent footballing association
It’s a bit of a stretch to compare the nationhood of Gibraltar with that of the home nations though, it doesn’t enjoy the same status as them within the U.K. Gibraltar is basically just a British city in Spain.
I do think it’s worth noting that UEFA literally changed the requirements for membership after Gibraltar joined to stop it happening again. Jersey tried to join after the changes but got rejected despite being larger, self-governing and with just as distinct an identity, arguably even more so. So the other problem with Gibraltar is you create a double standard were this one particular Territory can get in but other Territories can’t. When you factor in how terrible they are it just doesn’t make any sense to include them.