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MARIGOT—President of St. Martin Football Association (SMFA) Fabrice Baly disclosed Monday St. Martin has applied for membership of the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) and is awaiting news since submission of the application on March 17.

At the last General Assembly it was agreed St. Martin Football Association would benefit greatly from integration with FIFA but because St. Martin was not an independent country it needed to receive endorsement from the French Federation of Football (FFF) which was done.

CONCACAF and FIFA member Grenada have also supported St. Martin's application.

"If it's a positive answer then we can proceed and discuss the formalities to go through and if it's negative we stop there," said Baly. "We don't want to integrate with FIFA just for integration's sake. We want a double position like they have in Tahiti. They are in FIFA and at the same time in the French system as one of the leagues of the federation. We want to be treated by the same principle. All the legal aspects and possibilities have been verified and we meet FIFA's application criteria. Now it's up to the federation to tell us yes or no."

Baly explained St. Martin needs help with upgrading sports infrastructure, access to higher levels of competition, and better opportunities to expose local talent, amongst other needs.

"The Collectivité by itself cannot meet all the needs and demands for infrastructure because we are very behind in that sense," he said. "We believe if we are accepted it will be a win-win situation for everyone, the players, the volunteers, the officials, because it gives us identity and pride. It's also justified by the challenges we still face by being part of the Guadeloupe league where licenses and other technical aspects are administered from there.

"By having full autonomy stipulated by provisions in the organic law we ought to be able to administratively move away from Guadeloupe, where sports is concerned. Where FIFA is concerned once we are recognised as a league of the French federation we no longer need to be tied to Guadeloupe. This is a long term project where we expect to reap the full benefits of FIFA's potential in about 15 years time."

He added to miss this window of opportunity would be a great shame as other Caribbean islands are already members of FIFA.

"Anguilla has a new stadium financed by FIFA and is in the process of building dormitories also financed by FIFA. The Government of Anguilla would not have the funds to do it. The Dutch side has rehabilitated the Raoul Illidge Sports Complex field with the help of EU and other funds. At the end of the day if we don't get this we are going to be left behind in a 1980s time warp because of petty politics as other islands take advantage of the means they have to continue developing."

According to Baly the timing is right because FIFA President Sep Blatter is currently very receptive to development in new territories. One of the big FIFA benefits is the annual $250,000 subvention to member associations for operating expenses.

Baly thanked the Collectivité and MP Daniel Gibbs for their support and the clubs that authorised the association to proceed with the application.