Jersey’s Uefa membership bid rejected

The Jersey Football Association’s application to join Uefa has been rejected following a meeting of its members in Bratislava.

Forty-nine out of 55 member associations voted against the move, with one - the Faroe Islands - abstaining.

The president of the JFA, Phil Austin, made a speech at Uefa Congress in Slovakia calling on European football’s governing body to put football first and support their application.

But Uefa president Aleksander Čeferin was clear in summing up that Jersey did not meet the eligibility requirements saying “we are not above our own statutes.”

The JFA had won the right to have their bid put to a vote of Uefa’s members following an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport last year.