Concacaf membership would be 'a dream' for Greenland
Greenland's harsh artic climate means football matches are played on gravel pitches or artificial turf
- Published
Greenland manager Morten Rutkjaer says membership of Concacaf would be "a dream" for the Arctic island, after it applied to join football's governing body for North and Central America.
Greenland, which has never played competitive international football, is a sovereign territory of Denmark but is geographically part of North America.
It has a population of just 57,000, though that is larger than some existing Concacaf members including Montserrat and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
"It is very important for me that the youth and young people in Greenland have something to look forward to," Rutkjaer told BBC Sport. "They have to dream big.
"They can look at us and see it is possible to be a football player at a high level in Greenland.
"It's a big dream for me to give that to the young people."
Greenland is unable to join Uefa because the European governing body only admits countries recognised by the United Nations, but there is no such requirement for Concacaf.
It is the world's largest island and covers an area greater than the size of western Europe, but 81% of its land mass is covered by sheet ice.
According to the official Greenland tourism website the country has 76 football clubs and 5,500 registered players, around 10% of the population.
However, the harsh Arctic climate means football can only be played outside for five months of the year and on gravel pitches or artificial turf.
"It's very difficult to play football when there's a lot of snow," said Rutkjaer. "Grass can only grow in south Greenland.
"Most of the players play in Greenland but can only play for five months in a year. That's not enough. So we talked about having a football field with a roof.
"Some of our players also play outside Greenland, in Denmark, Iceland, and so on.
"It's very important they play in other countries, but also that we get Greenlandic football to a higher level."
Head of the Greenland FA Kenneth Kleist said plans are in place to build more indoor pitches and a partnership agreement with Iceland could see the Nordic country host home games.
"National pride has a lot to do with the idea of independence, so being able to play international football matches will mean an awful lot for Greenland," Kleist told Reuters.
Rutkjaer's side take on Turkmenistan in a friendly in Turkey on Sunday.
