I also meant to add that I don't think FIFA are obliged to adhere to CAS rulings, but they generally tend to as they'd appear less accountable that way than they already do. I'm open to correction on that though, but I am aware that the Gibraltar Football Association, for example, applied for UEFA membership and had it refused after the Spanish association kicked up a fuss and threatened to boycott competition. This was in spite of Gibraltar taking their case to CAS who ruled that they did in fact have valid grounds for UEFA membership and satisfied FIFA's criteria for confederation membership. More about it on Wiki here.
"On August 25, 2006, it was proposed that Gibraltar will become a provisional member of UEFA. However, a decision on granting this was postponed in October 2006. The decision was made on December 8, 2006 that Gibraltar will be made provisional members of UEFA: FIFA had announced two days earlier that their executive committee had "ruled that Gibraltar does not meet the statutory requirements to become a FIFA member", despite the fact that the Court of Arbitration in Sport had already ruled to the contrary.
On January 26, 2007 Gibraltar membership had been rejected by the UEFA Board with only 3 out of 52 votes supporting Gibraltar's claim. Spain was the strongest opponent to Gibraltar joining UEFA, even threatening to boycott any competition in which the Gibraltar national team would compete.
The issue has again been referred back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a ruling."
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