Do you have any idea that there is Mundial here? Yesterday at 6 PM European Qualification to Conifa World Cup started. But what does CONIFA means and which teams are playing there?

CONIFA (Confederation of Independent Football Associations) ; this is sport federation ; but who are the members? ; they are dependent territory which don’t belongs to FIFA. This is not the common knowledge but Roma People, Zanzibar, Tiber or Kurdistan have their own football teams. 55 Teams belongs to CONIFA (21 from Europe, 11 Asian, 11 African, 6 South American, 3 from Oceania, 3 from North America and 6 from South America

CONIFA Championship History

CONIFA Federation was established in 2013 and just in 2014 first CONIFA championship were organized in Sapmi, dependent territory in Central Sweden. There were 12 participants and Nice County was the first champion.

Second edition happened in 2016. Now in Abkhazia, territory located on the Eastern part of Black Sea, included also Western Caucas with Suchumi as the capital. This was first edition, when there were so many teams registered that qualification were needed. But this was not traditional qualification formula, but rather series of local tournaments and single matches. 12 Teams qualified and in Suchumi they were divided into 3 groups ; 2 teams from each group played in final stage. Host team gained the title. In the final host won against Punjab, territory in India and Pakistan.

The next tournament occured in 2018 in Berkshire, Essex and London. It was the first tournament when 16 teams (instead 12) had played. Also qualification rules were finally codified. There were two criteria of qualification ; friendly matches and rank included points gained in matches. It was first tournament when teams from Oceania and South America joined. The champion was Zakarpatya who won the final against Northern Cyprus.

Tournament in 2020 was cancelled and it is really not hard to guess that the reason was COVID 201.

Kurdistan 2024 ; first CONIFA Championship after 6 years break

This year (9 May) CONIFA announced that tournament in 2024 will be organize in Kurdistan. 16 teams will be qualify, and today qualification in Europe starts. There are 4 groups ; 3 grups with 2 Teams – one gonna be qualify, and also one group with 3 teams – 2 teams gonna be qualify from this group. Who took part in the first match? Ticino – the Swiss canton located on the very South, on the Italian border, with italian minority, against Raetia (territory located on the border between Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein). The match itself ended with a score of 8-1 for Recia and it is this team that has the first ticket to the World Cup in Kurdistan

The broadcast from both qualificatons and championship is available on Conifa website which is free of charge.

Introduction : Unexplored football, Exotic Football, Unpopular Football Part 3

Yesterday at 6 PM European Qualification to CONIFA World Cup started. But what is CONIFA and who belongs there?

Tymson Michejda

(translation by Łukasz Kołtuniak)