Abstract
ABSTRACT The FIFA motto ‘For the World. For the Game’ implicitly claims global inclusivity and elevates it to a core tenet for capacity building within the football governing body. This study, however, argues that the structure of the global body contributes to the exclusion of certain territories and their residents by acting as a gatekeeper and arbitrarily treating territories differently through changing membership criteria. This paper first discusses the phenomenon of football sovereignty and its relationship to political sovereignty. It demonstrates that there is no perfect correlation between the two and that geo-political, structural, financial, logistical, and/or historic reasons contribute towards certain territories being excluded from FIFA. The paper concludes by discussing potential strategies for resolving the inconsistencies in FIFA’s membership criteria, and particular emphasis is made on the power and role of International Sport Governing Bodies like FIFA in perpetuating these inconsistencies. However, the current exclusionary nature is likely to continue, and FIFA will remain hesitant to let in any non-UN members.
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