Why did Wales qualify for the World Cup and Friesland did not qualify?

Wales qualified for the FIFA World Cup. Really crazy, so why shouldn’t the UK just get involved in this? After all, Friesland could not qualify either.

1988 World Cup qualifiers between Holland and Wales. Rob C Cross’s photo Across National Archives

The Dutch team will play tomorrow against Wales, which qualified for the World Cup last weekend. This places them in the same group as England, even though both teams are part of the United Kingdom.

how is that possible? Friesland or Limburg are not independently affiliated with FIFA and, as is known, do not have any ambitions. Catalonia will really like it, they have had their own team for more than a hundred years, but then were denied entry. Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England are independent members of FIFA, unlike the United Kingdom. This strange condition is the solution to a football problem from a long time ago.

home nations

FIFA was founded on 21 May 1904 on the initiative of France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. In the British Isles alone, there was absolutely no interest in joining an international football organisation, seriously undermining FIFA’s credibility. After all, this is where football originated. It’s as if the Netherlands doesn’t want to do anything with Korfball.

In fact, Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland are very important to the birth of modern football home nations Called. They played against each other in the 19th century, before the advent of FIFA. The oldest official international match was between England and Scotland in 1870 – 34 years before it was founded. Before that, they had to agree among themselves on the rules of the game, otherwise the responsible referee would not have a nice day.

In order to arrange it, in 1886, he International Football Association Board (IFAB) was founded by Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland. This is where the legal basis for football was laid. The game rules So they are much older than FIFA, and they all settled in the British Isles.

Four independent members

The start of FIFA without home nations So it was disastrous. In order to reintegrate these unions, they were all given the opportunity to become independent members, rather than just the UK. In doing so, the UK had not one vote in FIFA, but four. At the current number of 211 members, this no longer matters, but at the beginning of the last century, there were not even ten countries affiliated with FIFA. Thus Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland gained enormous influence.

Then there was something else: FIFA recognized the International Football Association Board (IFAB) as the guardian of the rules of the game. Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland each received 12.5% ​​of the vote from this organisation, making up half of the total. The other half was for FIFA itself. Since the rule change only occurs with a minimum of 75% of the vote, FIFA is not in a position to decide on this independently. A union always needs the support of at least two home nations: 50% + 12.5% ​​+ 12.5%.

In fact, under these terms, the four British federations joined FIFA between 1905 and 1911. The only thing that changed is that in the 1920s, Ireland was divided into an independent country and Northern Ireland, which is still part of the United Kingdom.

This is why the Inner Nations are critical to changing the rules. That is why the Netherlands will play against Wales tomorrow and not against the United Kingdom. Which is why Wales and England are in the same group for the upcoming World Championships.