Turkish Cypriots hope that meeting between football governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA, will bring them one step closer to leaving football’s international wilderness.

"Outcasts! The Lands That FIFA Forgot" examines the much tarnished reputation of FIFA, the governing body of world football, and just how they justify the exclusion of some 'nations' from their organisation while welcoming others.

When in 2005 the draft of a European Constitution failed, sport was left without any article of its own and, thus, without a legal framework on the EU level. That is why the European Commission started a process to implement legal regulation of sports nevertheless.

UEFA president, Michel Platini, is calling for less judicial interference in sport. His comments are reinforced by four of Europe’s team sport federations and the UK sports minister, all backing the European white paper on sport’s proposals for less legal interference in sport.

Multinational cooperation between police and football authorities will be a must if European football wants to counter criminal money laundering activities through football. So says Henri Roemer, a special advisor to UEFA’s Executive Committee and an expert on what makes football vulnerable to organised crime.

Swimmers, boxers, tri-athletes, rowers and many other athletes from Gibraltar can play their sports internationally. Football players can not. And despite a clear ruling to the contrary from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the football federation in Gibraltar (GFA) does not expect to gain full membership of UEFA at the UEFA congress in January.

Yet another battle has broken out between UEFA and FIFA and this time FIFA is backed by IOC, spearheaded by Jacques Rogge. IOC and FIFA are unhappy that EU wants to get involved in the affairs of elite sport. UEFA on the other hand calls for stronger co-operation with the EU.

Gibraltar must wait longer than anticipated for membership of UEFA. UEFA’s Executive Committee has decided to postpone the decision to grant Gibraltar membership after opposition from Spain. The Spanish football association claims that Gibraltar’s football stadium is built on disputed land under Spanish sovereignty.