The Basque Football Federation (FVF) has registered formal applications for admission to FIFA and UEFA on Tuesday with the aim that the Basque Country football team compete officially in competitions such as the European Championship or the World Cup.

In the delegation that has traveled to Zurich and Nyon, headed by the president of the FVF,

Luis María Elustondo

, has participated

Jon Redondo

, director of Sports of the Basque Government and main promoter of the project of segregation of the Basque team.

It should be remembered that the executive chaired by the Lehendakari

Iñigo Urkullu

is the result of a coalition between the PNV and the PSE in which the Basque brand of the PSOE occupies three positions out of 12: the Second Vice Presidency and two other ministries.

This initiative (which, according to the FVF, complies with "the majority wish of Basque society") comes almost two years after the FVF assembly approved the submission of applications for admission, in a meeting attended by only a third of the assembly members with the right to vote.

The admission of a federation as a full member of UEFA and FIFA is a prerequisite for its team to compete officially in international competitions.

This assembly caused a schism that still persists in Basque football, with the Alava federation and especially the Biscayan federation (the one that has the greatest weight) head-on against Elustondo, whose term will end in a few weeks and who will not be eligible for re-election.

There was even an attempt a year ago to provoke his forced resignation that did not bear fruit due to regulatory reasons.

The statutes of the two organizations are clear regarding the impossibility that, at the moment, the one from Euskadi becomes an official selection.

For this, the FVF should be admitted as an independent federation from the Spanish one.

The current statutes of UEFA state in article 5.1 that "being a member of UEFA is open to national football associations located on the European continent, established in a country that is recognized as an independent state by the majority of UN members and who is responsible for the organization and implementation of football-related matters in the territory of his country ".

This article was modified in 2001 to avoid the inclusion of Gibraltar as a member federation, since, like Euskadi, it is not an independent state recognized by the UN either.

The English colony finally turned to the CAS and agreed with it, given that it had formalized its initial request before that change of Statutes.

In addition, Gibraltar has full power over the organization of its football, with a league and a cup independent of any British federation, as also happens with the Faroe Islands or Northern Ireland, a very different case from the Basque Country, whose clubs and competitions are under direct command of the Spanish Football Federation.

Most likely, the UEFA Executive Committee will not even submit the FVF's application for a vote in its Congress and will directly reject the application.

With respect to FIFA, it establishes as a member admission requirement that the federation in question has been previously admitted by its corresponding confederation, in this case UEFA.

A requirement that is not enough, since there are cases such as Martinique, a French island located in the Caribbean that is official for CONCACAF, but not for FIFA.

And it is that FIFA also establishes that the applicants must be "responsible for organizing and supervising football in all its forms in their country" and that there will only be one selection per country.

It does, of course, leave an open door for exceptions: "With the prior authorization of the member federation of the country on which it depends, the football federation of a region that has not yet obtained its independence may apply for admission to FIFA."

The FVF assures in its statement that it has notified the body chaired by

Luis Rubiales of

its "willingness to open a negotiation period to achieve an agreement that includes formal authorization by the RFEF", for which it sets a period of one year.

The FVF recognizes without hiding it that this authorization from the RFEF is an essential requirement for FIFA to be able to accept their request.

And this is where the last of the FVF's many impediments to achieving its goal arises.

Because the RFEF, even if it wanted to do it (which it does not want to) could not authorize the Basque's registration in UEFA and FIFA, as it would be acting against the law.

The doctrine of the Constitutional Court has already established that only regional or provincial sports teams in which there is no national federation can compete internationally, since "the international coordination and representation of Spanish sport" is the responsibility of the State and not the autonomies , despite having transferred the competences in the field of Sport.

There are few examples of official regional teams, but they do exist: Euskadi competes internationally in rope shooting and kayak surfing and Catalonia does it in korfball.

In order for the FVF's wishes to succeed, the constitutional framework would have to be modified.

In this sense, the agreement reached by the PNV and the PSOE for the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez includes the commitment of the Spanish Government to "open channels to promote the international representation of the Basque Country in the sports and cultural sphere."

An issue closely linked to the always pending reform of the Sports Law, a modification that Sánchez promised to address during his inauguration speech, almost a year ago.

The draft presented by the PSOE at the beginning of 2019, and which two years later has fallen into oblivion, did not include any reference to what wishes such as those of the FVF could fit into the Spanish legislative framework.

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