TheFIFI Wild Cup was an alternative to the FIFA World Cup, held from May 29 to June 3, 2006 inHamburg,Germany, prior to the officialFIFA World Cup which started one week later. It was run by the Federation of International Football Independents (FIFI).
FIFI was a body composed of countries not recognized at the time byFIFA and those whose logistics or political disputes prevented them from playing representativefootball.[1] TheMillerntor-Stadion inHamburg hosted all the tournament matches.[2] The tournament was sponsored by a Germanonline gambling consortium calledmyBet, as well asGoool.de Sportswear GmbH, who paid a combined €750,000 to fund the tournament. The tournament had 2 mascots, Schäfer and Schmitz. Media patronage was provided by TV stationsDSF andProSieben. The tournament was organized by Essen Agencies, Carat Sponsorship GmbH, and Western Star GmbH.
According to organizer Jorg Pommeranz, FIFI had to overcome various obstacles, such asChina and FIFA applying pressure to exclude Tibet, and difficulties for players representingNorthern Cyprus obtaining visas to enter Germany.[3]
The tournament winners were theTurkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Spectator attendance was reported as “relatively weak”, with an average of 400 fans per match, although this could have been affected by poor weather.[4] Consequently, a second edition of the tournament was deemed to be unlikely, although they considered a 2010 edition to be hosted by Greenland.[5]
Germany (location)
Northern Cyprus (1st title)
Zanzibar
Gibraltar
Greenland — an autonomous country within theDanish Realm and under the control of theFootball Association of Greenland.
Tibet — an autonomous region ofChina.
Monaco was invited but withdrew before the tournament began.[4]
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Mwinyi
