| Current: | 2024 CONIFA World Football Cup |
| Most Successful Team: | (1 title each) |
| Region: | International |
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, which has been held every two years since 2014. This tournament is the successor of the Viva World Cup which was held from 2006 to 2012.[1]
CONIFA is an organisation that provides an outlet for countries, sub-national entities, stateless peoples and ethnic minorities to play international football. Because a number of their members represent diasporas or displaced peoples, it is not always possible for the host of the World Football Cup to be able to hold the competition in their own "territory". As a consequence of this, CONIFA defines the "host" of the World Football Cup as being the member association that heads the organising committee, whether or not the tournament is actually played in the geographical area that the host association represents.[2]
See main article: Viva World Cup.
See main article: 2014 ConIFA World Football Cup. In May 2013, CONIFA announced that Sápmi had been chosen to host the inaugural CONIFA World Football Cup in Östersund, Sweden. It was an invitational tournament[3] played between 1 and 8 June 2014, with all matches being held in the 5092-capacity Jämtkraft Arena.[4]
Twelve teams took part in the tournament.[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Catalonia[11] and Rapa Nui[12] 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.[13]
Of the twelve invited teams, eight had previously participated at the Viva World Cup.
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 However, in May 2014, it was announced that both Quebec and Zanzibar had withdrawn from the tournament.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.[14] The Zanzibar team were unable to obtain visas to enter Sweden and were thus forced to pull out of the tournament.[15] Quebec's place was taken by South Ossetia, while Zanzibar were replaced by County of Nice.
See main article: 2016 ConIFA World Football Cup. The 2016 tournament was 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.[16] 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.[17] 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.[18] 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.[19]
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.[20] 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.[21] 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.[22]
See main article: 2018 CONIFA World Football Cup. The 2018 competition saw the tournament expanded from 12 to 16 teams, and featured a full set of qualification criteria as laid down by CONIFA. In addition to the various friendly tournaments sanctioned as qualifiers, the 2018 tournament featured ranking points awarded for games played by members, which went towards the awarding of various continental places to CONIFA's various geographical zones. For the first time, teams from both North America and Oceania gained places in the competition.
In June 2017, at the CONIFA meeting held during the 2017 CONIFA European Football Cup in Northern Cyprus, it was announced that Barawa would be the hosts of the 2018 World Football Cup, with the announcement of the actual location of the tournament (owing to the Barawa FA representing part of the Somali diaspora and being located in the United Kingdom) subsequently announced as London in September 2017.[23] The tournament was documented by Irish journalist James Hendicott in the book CONIFA: Football for the Forgotten.[24]
See main article: 2020 CONIFA World Football Cup. In January 2019, at the CONIFA Annual General Meeting in Kraków, Poland, Somaliland was voted in a non-binding vote before the decision was finalized by the executive committee the following day. The 2020 competition will be the first CONIFA World Football Cup to be hosted outside Europe, with previous host Barawa holding the competition in London.[25] However, on the 19th of August 2019 Conifa announced that the cup would not be held in Somaliland due to logistical difficulties.[26] In December 2019 CONIFA announced that the relocated tournament would take place in Skopje, North Macedonia.[27] On 23 March 2020 CONIFA announced that the tournament will not be taking place in North Macedonia from 30 May – 7 June because of the coronavirus pandemic.[28] The Tournament was eventually cancelled by CONIFA with the organisation outlining plans to expand continental tournaments.[29]
ConIFA have announced that the 2024 CONIFA World Cup hosting rights have been awarded to Kurdistan FA on their official twitter account on 9 May 2023.[30] On 30 April 2024 the Kurdistan Football Association announced that the tournament would be postponed until "Summer 2025" citing security concerns preventing some teams from traveling to the region.[31]
| Year | Host | First place game | Third place game | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width= 100px | Champion | width= | Score | width= 100px | Runner-up | width= 100px | Third | width= | Score | width= 100px | Fourth |
| 1 | 2014 | 0–0 | Ellan Vannin | 4–1 | 12 | ||||||
| 2 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 12 | ||||||||
| 3 | 2018 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 16 | |||||||
| - | 2020 | (Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic) | 16 | ||||||||
| 4 | 2024 | 16 | |||||||||
For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.
| Team | 2014 (12) | 2016 (12) | 2018 (16) | Total participations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QF | 1st | PR | 3/3 | ||
| 3rd | • | • | 1/3 | ||
| PR | • | • | 1/3 | ||
| × | × | QF | 1/3 | ||
| × | × | QF | 1/3 | ||
| • | PR | • | 1/3 | ||
| bgcolor=gold | 1st | •• | • | 1/3 | |
| PR | • | • | 1/3 | ||
| bgcolor=silver | 2nd | •• | PR | 2/3 | |
| × | × | PR | 1/3 | ||
| × | × | bgcolor=gold | 1st | 1/3 | |
| QF | QF | • | 2/3 | ||
| × | × | PR | 1/3 | ||
| • | 3rd | bgcolor=silver | 2nd | 2/3 | |
| QF | •• | • | 1/3 | ||
| QF | 4th | 3rd | 3/3 | ||
| • | bgcolor=silver | 2nd | QF | 2/3 | |
| • | PR | • | 1/3 | ||
| PR | QF | • | 2/3 | ||
| • | PR | • | 1/3 | ||
| 4th | • | • | 1/3 | ||
| • | PR | 4th | 2/3 | ||
| PR | • | PR | 2/3 | ||
| × | × | PR | 1/3 | ||
| × | × | PR | 1/3 | ||
| • | QF | PR | 2/3 | ||
| • | QF | QF | 2/3 |
See main article: world cups.