ConIFA World Football Cup

ConIFA World Football Cup

Founded	2014
Region	International (Confederation of Independent Football Associations)
Current champions	Abkhazia (1st title)
Most successful team(s)	Abkhazia (1 title)  County of Nice (1 title)
2018 ConIFA World Football Cup qualification

The ConIFA World Football Cup is an international football tournament organized by ConIFA, an umbrella association for states, minorities, stateless peoples and regions unaffiliated with FIFA, planned to be held every two years.

History

Sápmi 2014

In May 2013 ConIFA announced that Sápmi had been chosen to host the inaugural ConIFA World Football Cup in Östersund, Sweden. It will be an invitational tournament^[1] played between 1 and 8 June 2014, with all matches being held in the 5092-capacity Jämtkraft Arena.^[2]

Twelve teams took part in the tournament.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]} Catalonia^[9] and Rapa Nui^[10] were thought to be potential participants, but ultimately declined or withdrew.

In parallel with the tournament, a festival celebrating the cultural diversity of the teams involved was held in Östersund.^[11]

Of the twelve invited teams, eight had previously participated at the Viva World Cup.

Withdrawals

The draw initially included Quebec and Zanzibar. However, in May 2014, it was announced that both Quebec and Zanzibar had withdrawn from the tournament. The Quebec team had affiliated with the Fédération de soccer du Québec, with the intention that the FSQ eventually apply for membership of CONCACAF. To this end, the team will only play internationals against full national teams that are members of either CONCACAF or FIFA, and will no longer participate in Non-FIFA Football.^[12] The Zanzibar team were unable to obtain visas to enter Sweden and were thus forced to pull out of the tournament.^[13] Quebec's place was taken by South Ossetia, while Zanzibar were replaced by County of Nice.

Abkhazia 2016

The 2016 tournament will be the first to feature a measure of qualification, rather than all of the teams being invited. In April 2015, ConIFA, during its announcement of the final make up of the 2015 European Football Cup, that the top three teams in that competition would gain automatic entry into the 2016 WFC.^[14] Also in April, the Ellan Vannin team announced it would play two charity matches against Alderney, which would also serve as warm up games for the Island Games tournament in which both Alderney and the Isle of Man were competing.^[15] Subsequently, in May 2015, two weeks before the scheduled dates of the two games, ConIFA and the MIFA announced that it had been expanded to four teams, with both Panjab and Felvidék also taking part; ConIFA also announced that the winner of the expanded Niamh Challenge Cup would gain automatic entry into the 2016 World Football Cup.^[16] A further four team tournament, the Benedikt Fontana Cup, was announced to be hosted by the Raetia FA to run during the European Football Cup. This would also feature Felvidék, as well as the hosts and Chagos Islands, and would also serve as a qualification tournament for the World Football Cup.^[17]

Withdrawals

In December 2015, following advice from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office over security concerns regarding travel to Abkhazia, the Manx Independent Football Alliance announced that the Ellan Vannin team would withdraw from the World Football Cup, and instead take part in the 2016 Europeada Championship in Italy, like Occitania.^[18] Subsequently, both the Aymará team, and County of Nice also withdrew.

In March 2016, ConIFA announced that Padania had been expelled from the tournament due to procedural irregularities, to be replaced by Székely Land.^[19] However, three weeks prior to the start of the tournament, it was announced that Padania had been reinstated, taking the place of the Romani people team, who had been forced to withdraw due to difficulties with their travel documents.^[20]

Results

Year	Host		Winner	Score	Runner-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place		No. of teams
2014 Details	Sápmi		County of Nice	0–0 (5–3 p)	Ellan Vannin		Arameans Suryoye	4–1	South Ossetia		12
2016 Details	Abkhazia		Abkhazia	1–1 (6–5 p)	Panjab		Northern Cyprus	2–0	Padania		12
2018 Details

Appearances

Legend

• 1st — Champions
• 2nd — Runners-up
• 3rd — Third place
• 4th — Fourth place
• QF — Quarterfinals
• PR — Placement Round (bottom placed teams in group stage)
• q — Qualified for upcoming tournament
•  ••  — Qualified but withdrew
•  •  — Did not qualify
•  ×  — Did not enter / Withdrew / Banned / Entry not accepted by ConIFA
•    — Hosts

For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

Team	2014 (12)	2016 (12)	2018 (TBC)	Total participations
Abkhazia	QF	1st		2/3
Arameans Suryoye	3rd	•		1/3
Aymará	•	••		0/3
Chagos Islands	•	PR	•	1/3
County of Nice	1st	••		1/3
Darfur	PR	•	••	1/3
Ellan Vannin	2nd	••	••	1/3
Felvidék	•	•	q	1/3
Iraqi Kurdistan	QF	QF		2/3
Nagorno-Karabakh	PR	•		1/3
Northern Cyprus	•	3rd		1/3
Occitania	QF	••		1/3
Padania	QF	4th		2/3
Panjab	•	2nd		1/3
Quebec	••	×	×	0/3
Raetia	•	PR		1/3
Romani people	•	•	•	0/3
Sápmi	PR	QF		2/3
Somaliland	•	PR		1/3
South Ossetia	4th	•		1/3
Székely Land	•	PR	•	1/3
Tamil Eelam	PR	•	q	2/3
United Koreans of Japan	•	QF		1/3
Western Armenia	•	QF		1/3
Zanzibar	••	•		0/3

References

1. "Les Québécois à la ConIFA 2014 Archived May 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine." (23 October 2013). sympatico.ca. Retrieved 31 January 2014
2. "Conifa World Cup på Jämtkraft Arena" Östersund tourist information. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
3. "Per Anders Blind president i nytt internationellt fotbollsförbund". (7 January 2014). Sveriges Radio. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
4. "Laddat för VM i stan Archived May 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine." (1 November 2013). Sveriges Television. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
5. Berglund, Tone. (11 October 2013). "Älvsbybo vald till världspresident i CONIFA". Älvsbyn. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
6. "سفين كانبي ممثلاً لقارة آسيا في (CONiFA) وكرة المونديال في الدوري ". Retrieved 25 January 2014.
7. "ConIFA World Cup 2014". Arogeraldes. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
8. "El otro Mundial de fútbol que se juega en 2014" (16 January 2014). Pasión Libertadores. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
9. "La CONIFA organisera sa coupe du monde en Suède Archived May 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine." (3 January 2014). Football Mercato. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
10. Bock, Andreas. (6 December 2013). "Das ist kein Gag!". 11 Freunde. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
11. Adamsson, Niklas. (31 October 2013) "VM i Östersund: "Nästintill ofattbart"". ltz.se. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
12. "Les Québécois s'associeront à la Fédération de soccer du Québec, mais la sélection nationale n'ira pas en Suède". Les Québécois (in French). Retrieved 29 May 2014.
13. "New ConIFA World Football Cup opponents for Ellan Vannin". IOM Today. Isle of Man Newspapers. 6 May 2014. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
14. "ConIFA European Football Cup Schedule". ConIFA. 27 April 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
15. "Niamh Challenge Matches – Ellan Vannin vs. Alderney FA". Niamh's Next Step. 8 April 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
16. "Ellan Vannin to host tournament at end of month". Isle of Man Today. 13 May 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
17. "Benedikt Fontana Cup". ConIFA. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
18. "Ellan Vannin set for new European adventure". IOM Today. 17 December 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
19. "Replacement in ConIFA WFC 2016". Facebook. 2 March 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
20. "BREAKING!Sad news approached us from the Romani People Football Team". Facebook. 7 May 2016. Retrieved 7 May 2016.