Founded 2014 | Current champions Abkhazia (1st title) | |
 | ||
Region International (Confederation of Independent Football Associations) Most successful team(s) Abkhazia (1 title)
County of Nice (1 title) | ||
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.
Contents
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 played between 1 and 8 June 2014, with all matches being held in the 5092-capacity Jämtkraft Arena.
Twelve teams took part in the tournament. Catalonia and Rapa Nui 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.
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 However, in May 2014, it was announced that both Quebec and Zanzibar had withdrawn from the tournament.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. The Zanzibar team were unable to obtain visas to enter Sweden and were thus forced to pull out of the tournament. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
Appearances
For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.