The Gibraltar Football Association or also Gibraltar FA (GFA) is the governing body for Gibraltarian football and futsal. It was formed as the Gibraltar Civilian Football Association in 1895, changing to its current name in later years. It is one of the oldest football associations in the world. From October 2012, the GFA were provisional members of UEFA and the Gibraltar national futsal team, under-19 and under-17 representative teams participated in the 2013/14 UEFA season competitions. At the XXXVII UEFA Congress held in London on 24 May 2013, Gibraltar was accepted as a full member of UEFA. Gibraltar were admitted to FIFA as a full member on 13 May 2016 at the 66th FIFA Congress in Mexico.
The Republic of Ireland national football team represents the Republic of Ireland in men's international football. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).
Victoria Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Gibraltar. It is currently used mostly for football matches, but also hosts the annual Gibraltar Music Festival. It is located close to Gibraltar Airport just off Winston Churchill Avenue. It was named after the wife of Gibraltarian philanthropist John Mackintosh.
The Gibraltar men's national football team represents Gibraltar in international football competitions, and is controlled by the Gibraltar Football Association. Gibraltar applied for full Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) membership and was accepted by the UEFA Congress in May 2013. It can therefore compete in the UEFA European Championship starting with the 2016 tournament for which the team competed in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying Group D. On 13 May 2016 Gibraltar became a member of FIFA at the governing body's 66th Congress which was held in Mexico City. Gibraltar is the second smallest UEFA member in terms of population and the smallest in terms of area.
The Romania women's national football team represents Romania in international women's football. Their most recent competition is qualification for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. Despite not gaining as much success as the men's, the women's team has been improving greatly, and almost qualified for UEFA Women's Euro and FIFA Women's World Cup. The rise of women's team is the chance for Romania to become the first Balkan nation to play on an international competitions, and become the first nation to have both men and women's teams participating in both tournaments. The only rival for them in the Balkans, is Serbia, as Serbian women's team had almost qualified for a major tournament recently.
Football has been a popular part of sport in Gibraltar since its introduction by British military personnel in the 19th century. The Gibraltar Football Association, founded in 1895, is one of the ten oldest active football associations in the world.
Sport plays a prominent role in Gibraltarian life. The range of sports practiced in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar is wide and varied in comparison to its size of less than 7 square kilometres. The Government of Gibraltar promotes sport within Gibraltar and supports many local sports associations financially. Gibraltar also competes in international sporting events, having competed in the Commonwealth Games since 1958, and in the biennial Island Games, which it hosted in 1995 and 2019.
The Gibraltar national football team is the representative association football team of Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. Its governing body is the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) and it competes as a member of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Organised football has been played in Gibraltar since the 19th century. The GFA first applied for UEFA membership in 1997 which was rejected, as UEFA would only allow membership for applicants recognised as sovereign states by the United Nations. They were unsuccessful in their second application in 2007 when only three of UEFA's 52 associations voted in their favour. In October 2012, they reapplied for membership which was granted in March 2013. Before 2018 the team's home ground, Victoria Stadium, did not meet UEFA's standards for competitive internationals, although it could be used for international friendlies. Gibraltar's first full international was played at the Estádio Algarve, located between Faro and Loulé, Portugal, which Gibraltar used as their home stadium for competitive matches between 2014 and 2018, and again from 2023.
Joseph Louis Chipolina is a Gibraltar international footballer who plays for Bruno's Magpies of the Gibraltar Football League as a left back or left winger.
The Gibraltar national under-19 football team represents Gibraltar in football competitions at under-19 level and is controlled by the Gibraltar Football Association. It is a full member of FIFA and is therefore eligible to enter any FIFA-sanctioned tournaments. Gibraltar applied for full UEFA membership and was accepted by the UEFA Congress in May 2013 and can therefore compete in the UEFA European Under-19 Championship beginning with the 2014 edition of the tournament.
Association football is the most popular sport in nearly every European country, and UEFA is one of the six confederations of world football's governing body FIFA. UEFA contains 55 national association members, some of which are partially or entirely located in Asia. A total of 33 of the current members of UEFA have competed at the men's FIFA World Cup, while the defunct East Germany qualified once.
The Gibraltar national football team represents Gibraltar in association football and is controlled by the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA), the governing body of the sport there. It competes as a member of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), which encompasses the countries of Europe. Organised football has been played in the country since the 19th century. Gibraltar first applied for UEFA membership in 1997 which was rejected, as UEFA would only allow membership for applicants recognised as sovereign states by the United Nations. In October 2012, Gibraltar reapplied for membership and it was granted in March 2013.
The Gibraltar national football team represents the Gibraltar in association football and is controlled by the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA), the governing body of the sport there. It competes as a member of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), which encompasses the countries of Europe. Organised football has been played in the country since the 19th century. Gibraltar first applied for UEFA membership in 1997 but was rejected because of intense opposition from Spain. In October 2012, Gibraltar reapplied for full membership and it was granted in March 2013. On 13 May 2016 Gibraltar was accepted as a member of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA); this was after their original application in 2014 was denied.
The Gibraltar national under-21 football team represents Gibraltar in football competitions at under-21 level and is controlled by the Gibraltar Football Association. It is a full member of FIFA and is therefore eligible to enter any FIFA-sanctioned tournaments. Gibraltar applied for full UEFA membership and was accepted by the UEFA Congress in May 2013 and can therefore compete in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship beginning with the 2015 edition of the tournament, although they did not participate until 2017, in qualification for the 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.
The international friendly between the Gibraltar and Slovakia national football teams on 19 November 2013 was the first official match played by Gibraltar after joining the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). It took place at the Estádio Algarve in Faro/Loulé, Portugal with 350 fans in attendance. The Gibraltar Football Association chose to play at the Estádio Algarve as this would be the stadium the team would use for competitive matches as their only venue the Victoria Stadium was not eligible to. The game ended in a 0–0 draw which was seen as an upset with Slovakia being heavy favourites to defeat UEFA's newest members. Gibraltar defender Danny Higginbotham received the man of the match award.
The Gibraltar women's national football team represents the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar in international women's football. Although the Gibraltar Football Association is a member of UEFA and FIFA, the association is yet to field a women's team in FIFA Women's World Cup or UEFA Women's Championship qualification. Instead, the team has largely been restricted to appearances at the biennial Island Games football tournaments, first appearing in the 2011 edition.
