THE Jersey FA are to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after having their bid to join UEFA turned down.
It was expected that Jersey would follow Guernsey and either apply for international status or consider joining the English Non-League Pyramid.
The Channel Island, formerly classed as a county by the English Football Association, applied to join UEFA and play international football in December last year.
UEFA representatives visited Jersey, a crown dependency of Great Britain, last month and the island were given the bad news this week.
They had hoped to join Gibraltar and Kosovo, two other recent new UEFA members, by gaining access to international football but Europe’s governing body has turned them down.
Jersey’s bid won’t be discussed by UEFA’s congress as the island is not recognised by the United Nations as an independent nation with Gibraltar applying before the rules were changed.
However, the Jersey FA will continue their fight and will appeal to CAS, who were instrumental in Gibraltar’s successful appeal.
Jersey FA president Phil Austin told BBC Sport: “This was the response we expected. From a footballing perspective we more than meet the criteria.
“In rejecting our application, the executive of UEFA have said that they’re not putting our application forward to the congress. We don’t think the executive have the authority to do that, we think it should go to congress.
“I have no idea how long it’s going to take, we are waiting for a court date hopefully within the next six months, but I don’t know.
“We are watching the costs very carefully and we will take it each step at a time and managed our budget accordingly. One or two people have stepped forward who believe in what we’re doing and will help us with our funding.”
