By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Greenland’s Football Association will send a delegation to the United States next month to begin talks on entering North American soccer body CONCACAF, hoping it will boost national pride at a time of global attention.
The football-crazy Arctic island, which U.S. President Donald Trump said he wants to make part of the United States, has never played competitive international football.
Yet in May last year, it applied for membership of CONCACAF, the governing body for soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory under Denmark but geographically part of the North American continent, had for years sought to become a member of UEFA, European football’s governing body.
Now, Greenland has been invited by CONCACAF general secretary Philippe Moggio for a meeting on Feb. 27 at the body’s headquarters in Miami, according to the head of Greenland’s Football Association, Kenneth Kleist.
UEFA requires its members to be recognised as fully independent by the United Nations. CONCACAF allows autonomous territories to join.
The meeting will take place at a time of renewed U.S. interest in the strategically important island and amid an increasing desire for independence from Denmark among the island’s population of just 57,000.
“The invitation is not related to the current geopolitical interest in Greenland,” Kleist said in a press release.
The world’s biggest island, with just 18 football pitches, would be the 42nd member of the continental association if approved. The outdoor season on the Arctic island runs from May to August.
“It’s about standing tall and showing that the Greenlandic people are capable and brave enough to take on the big guys,” national head coach Morten Rutkjer told Reuters.
The national team is made up of amateurs playing only friendlies. Greenland is planning three matches later this year against smaller CONCACAF nations.
“There is significant interest in playing against us from several major football nations,” Rutkjer said.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Toby Davis)
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