| Founded | 2014; 11 years ago (2014) |
|---|---|
| Region | International |
| Current champions |  Kárpátalja (1st title) |
| Most championships |  Abkhazia County of Nice Kárpátalja(1 title each) |
 2024 CONIFA World Football Cup | |
TheCONIFA World Football Cup is an international football tournament organized byCONIFA, an umbrella association for states, minorities, stateless peoples and regionsunaffiliated with FIFA, which has been held every two years since 2014. This tournament is the successor of theViva 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 andethnic minorities to play international football. Because a number of their members representdiasporas ordisplaced 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]
In May 2013, CONIFA announced thatSápmi had been chosen to host the inaugural CONIFA World Football Cup inÖstersund,Sweden. It was an invitational tournament[3] played between 1 and 8 June 2014, with all matches being held in the 5092-capacityJämtkraft Arena.[4]
Twelve teams took part in the tournament.[5][6][7][8][9][10]Catalonia[11] andRapa 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 theViva World Cup.
The draw initially includedQuebec andZanzibar. However, in May 2014, it was announced that both Quebec and Zanzibar had withdrawn from the tournament. The Quebec team had affiliated with theFédération de soccer du Québec, with the intention that the FSQ eventually apply for membership ofCONCACAF. To this end, the team will only play internationals against full national teams that are members of either CONCACAF orFIFA, and will no longer participate in Non-FIFA Football.[14] The Zanzibar team were unable to obtainvisas to enter Sweden and were thus forced to pull out of the tournament.[15] Quebec's place was taken bySouth Ossetia, while Zanzibar were replaced byCounty of Nice.
The 2016 tournament was the first to feature ameasure of qualification, rather than all of the teams being invited. In April 2015, CONIFA, during its announcement of the final make up of the2015 European Football Cup, that the top three teams in that competition would gain automatic entry into the 2016 WFC.[16] Also in April, theEllan Vannin team announced it would play two charity matches againstAlderney, which would also serve as warm up games for theIsland 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 bothPanjab andFelvidék 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 asthe hosts andChagos Islands, and would also serve as a qualification tournament for the World Football Cup.[19]
In December 2015, following advice from theUK Foreign and Commonwealth Office over security concerns regarding travel to Abkhazia, the Manx Independent Football Alliance announced that theEllan Vannin team would withdraw from the World Football Cup, and instead take part in the 2016 Europeada Championship in Italy, likeOccitania.[20] Subsequently, both the Aymará team, andCounty of Nice also withdrew.
In March 2016, CONIFA announced thatPadania had been expelled from the tournament due to procedural irregularities, to be replaced bySzékely Land.[21] However, three weeks prior to the start of the tournament, it was announced that Padania had been reinstated, taking the place of theRomani people team, who had been forced to withdraw due to difficulties with their travel documents.[22]
The 2018 competition saw the tournament expanded from 12 to 16 teams, and featured afull 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 the2017 CONIFA European Football Cup inNorthern 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 theSomali diaspora and being located in theUnited Kingdom) subsequently announced asLondon in September 2017.[23] The tournament was documented by Irish journalist James Hendicott in the book CONIFA: Football for the Forgotten.[24]
In January 2019, at the CONIFA Annual General Meeting inKraków,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 inSkopje,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 thecoronavirus 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 had 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] On 9 September 2024 CONIFA announced that the Kurdistan Football Association were suspended after withdrawing from hosting the 2024 tournament, and the revised 2025 tournament, until a fee had been paid.[32] The tournament was subsequently canceled.
| Ed. | Year | Host | First place game | Third place game | Num. teams | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Champion | Score |  Runner-up |  Third | Score | Fourth | ||||
| 1 | 2014 |  Sápmi[note 1] | County of Nice | 0–0 (5–3p) |  Ellan Vannin |  Arameans Suryoye | 4–1 |  South Ossetia | 12 |
| 2 | 2016 | Abkhazia | Abkhazia | 1–1 (6–5p) |  Panjab |  Northern Cyprus | 2–0 |  Padania | 12 |
| 3 | 2018 |  Barawa[note 2] | Kárpátalja | 0–0 (3–2p) | Northern Cyprus | Padania | 0–0 (5–4p) |  Székely Land | 16 |
 North Macedonia | (Cancelled due toCOVID-19 pandemic)[29] | 16 | |||||||
 Kurdistan Region | (Cancelled due to "security concerns")[35] | 16 | |||||||
| 4 | 2027 |  Egypt | TBC | ||||||
For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.
| Team | 2014 (12) | 2016 (12) | 2018 (16) | Total participations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abkhazia | QF | 1st | PR | 3/3 |
| Arameans Suryoye | 3rd | • | • | 1/3 |
 Artsakh | PR | • | • | 1/3 |
| Barawa | × | × | QF | 1/3 |
 Cascadia | × | × | QF | 1/3 |
 Chagos Islands | • | PR | • | 1/3 |
| County of Nice | 1st | •• | • | 1/3 |
 Darfur | PR | • | • | 1/3 |
| Ellan Vannin | 2nd | •• | PR | 2/3 |
 Kabylie | × | × | PR | 1/3 |
| Kárpátalja | × | × | 1st | 1/3 |
| Kurdistan Region | QF | QF | • | 2/3 |
 Matabeleland | × | × | PR | 1/3 |
| Northern Cyprus | • | 3rd | 2nd | 2/3 |
 Occitania | QF | •• | • | 1/3 |
| Padania | QF | 4th | 3rd | 3/3 |
| Panjab | • | 2nd | QF | 2/3 |
 Raetia | • | PR | • | 1/3 |
| Sápmi | PR | QF | • | 2/3 |
 Somaliland | • | PR | • | 1/3 |
| South Ossetia | 4th | • | • | 1/3 |
| Székely Land | • | PR | 4th | 2/3 |
 Tamil Eelam | PR | • | PR | 2/3 |
 Tibet | × | × | PR | 1/3 |
 Tuvalu | × | × | PR | 1/3 |
 United Koreans in Japan | • | QF | PR | 2/3 |
 Western Armenia | • | QF | QF | 2/3 |
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