ConIFA World Football Cup

For those of you who weren't aware, the other, more funtime world cup is going on in this country as we speak! The ConIFA World Football Cup is for countries who aren't recognised by FIFA, specific ethnic populations within larger countries and displaced peoples, and it takes place every two years. And I was lucky enough to go to a couple of games yesterday.

It's like a non-league version of international football, and terrific fun. I went up to Haringey to watch Barawa (South East Somalia) beat Ellan Vannin (Isle of Man) 2-0 in their last group game, and Matabeleland beat Tuvalu 3-1. All the games are played with an incredible passion and purity of spirit, and while the football isn't always top notch it was always thoroughly entertaining.

The group games took place over three days at the weekend (and to be honest, the players looked knackered by the end of yesterday's games), but unlike other tournaments, those that didn't qualify go on to play ranking games to establish which order they come in the top sixteen, so they continue to play right until the very end of the event.

If you're up London way I'd thoroughly recommend going to a couple of games between now and Saturday. And even if you're not, you can still stream most of them live via the ConIFA site, and well as getting information on all the teams and players.

Oh, and the fans of some of the sides are absolutely incredible. I spent most of the second half of my second game yesterday singing and dancing with the Matabeles!

It's a rest day today, but things kick off again tomorrow, so have a look at the site and see who you fancy following!

http://www.conifa.org/en/wfc-2018/

Six of us went to the two games played at Carshalton's War Memorial Ground on Saturday.

Enjoyable day with some good football on display and a few flashpoints! The punch thrown after Barawa vs Cascadia suggests we missed the purity of spirit bit though!

I'm not saying that there weren't some agricultural tackles, mind. It's just that all the teams I saw were battling for the honour of their shirts, which was a refreshing change!

The Isle of Man have announced they've pulled out of the tournament, as the Barawan's registered a player post the deadline for tournament registration (a player who's played in the African Cup of Nations & African Champions League it appears), CONIFA refused to sanction Barawa, so the Isle of Man have quit!

You never get such controversies in the real WC...

It has added some intrigue, but a bit of a shame as the idea is a good one.

The London Turkish Select who were in Isle of Man's place are currently winning, there is the possibility a team who entered part way through could end up winning the whole competition!

It looks like Chagos Islands will be playing the Isle of Man's fixture on Thursday. I have been keeping up with the Chagos Islands' team for years as, as opposed to some of the teams in Conifa (Yorkshire, indeed), they are genuinely a rare manifestation of nationhood for people who have been appallingly treated by the UK and US. If you know anything about the Chagos Islands/Diego Garcia (here is a good place to start), you will realise that the Chagos Islands were treated in exactly the opposite way that the Falklands were hypocritically. As a British Oversea Terrotory, the Chagos Islands should be allowed to be a FIFA member in the same way Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos Islands are and, if they were, it would help their case immeasurably (probably why FIFA wouldn't do it).

I have always hoped that we could hold a game for the Chagos Islands at Twerton Park - possibly against another team of dispossessed people such as the Palestinians. Indeed, I did get in touch with Conifa about holding some games here but it is obviously too far away from London. Maybe one day.

Jon_BOA wrote: There is the possibility a team who entered part way through could end up winning the whole competition!

Nah, can't happen. Isle of Man came third in their group, so their replacements could only have come as high as ninth in the lower placings tournament.

I saw them against Barawa and they were flipping petulant and niggly as soon as they went a goal down. They were one of those sides who thought they only had to turn up to win it, with their posh telemetry sports bras and sweary coaches. I guess after winning their first two games they must have thought they were through, but they only had to grind out a draw to guarantee that, so it's their own fault really for being complacent, really.

And to be honest, if Barawa had an international I don't know it was, because they played more like a plucky pub side.

Actually, London Turkish select were just an exhibition opponent, and Tibet were awarded a 3-0 win against IOM. I'll bet they still beat Tuvalu at the bottom of the table.

And as it turned out, the Manxmen's petulence was irrelevant, as Barawa got lamped 8-0 by Northern Cyprus in the quarters today!

Roy D Hacksaw wrote:

Jon_BOA wrote: There is the possibility a team who entered part way through could end up winning the whole competition!

Nah, can't happen. Isle of Man came third in their group, so their replacements could only have come as high as ninth in the lower placings tournament.

Ah of course, thanks Roy, I had read that having poured over Reedy's rather quite good tournament programme, but clearly slipped my mind.

The Manx team when we saw them looked a well drilled, if slightly limited outfit, the best side we saw on the day was Cascadia who put together some surprisingly good team moves. I say surprisingly as I was reading an interview with their captain the next day who mentioned that the Cascadian team had only met just before the tournament so had barely trained together.

Bruce Grobbelaar starts for Matabeleland today at the age of 60!

You can watch the final between Northern Cyprus and Karpatalya live here...

https://mycujoo.tv/video/conifa

I was gutted to miss this, as I'd seen the founder, Paul Watson speak at the Supporters Direct Members Day in May. He's had quite a surreal footballing career - he was an ex-semi-pro in England who then tried to become an international footballer by finding a tiny country and getting a passport - instead he ended up organising a football league in the Federated States of Micronesia and lobbying for FIFA recognition, and eventually becoming national manager.

My favourite part of his story (he wrote a book about it) is that he wrote to all 92 Football League clubs asking for kit donations for the fledging Micronesian league, but only one team actually sent any.... Yeovil Town.