The 2024 CONIFA World Football Cup will be the fourth edition of the CONIFA World Football Cup, an international football tournament for states, minorities, stateless peoples and regions unaffiliated with FIFA organized by CONIFA. On 9 May 2023, Kurdistan Region was announced as the tournament host,[1] but was removed in September 2024 following their suspension by CONIFA.
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | TBD |
| Dates | Summer 2025 |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Top scorer(s) |  |
← 2018 2025 → | |
On 30 April 2024, CONIFA announced that the tournament would be postponed until summer 2025 after security concerns meant that a large number of teams would not travel to the region. [2] On 9 September 2024, it was announced that Kurdistan would no longer host the tournament and had been suspended by CONIFA, no new host for the 2025 event was announced but an unofficial statement by the CONIFA President shared through social media suggested that Brazilian state of São Paulo was to become the new host.[3][4]
Host selection
editIn April 2023, following a visit to the region a month earlier announced that the Kurdistan Region would host the 2024 CONIFA World Football Cup, the first since the 2018 CONIFA World Football Cup due to the COVID-19 Pandemic resulting in the cancellation of the 2020 CONIFA World Football Cup due to be held in Skopje, North Macedonia.[5] Following the suspension of Kurdistan Football Association by CONIFA; the former lost its hosting rights. The new host of the tournament is yet to be determined.
Venues
editQualification
editCONIFA assigns the number of berths for each continent according to the percentage of CONIFA members that come from that continent, with each continent having guaranteed at least one spot in the tournament.[6] In addition, one place is reserved to the host team, other to the current champion (Kárpátalja) and one wild card. Hawaiʻi shared, via social media, that while they had been given an automatic ticket to the tournament, as Oceania's only member, they had declined the invitation and transferred their ticket to Asia, although no formal confirmation had been made by CONIFA. [7]
| Continent | Active members[8] |
Percentage | Proposed Spots |
Actual Spots |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | 1 | 10% | 1 | 1 |
| Asia | 6 | 17% | 2 | 5 |
| Europe | 16 | 50% | 6 | 8 |
| North America | 3 | 7% | 1 | 1 |
| Oceania | 1 | 3% | 1 | 0 |
| South America | 2 | 13% | 2 | 2 |
Qualified teams
edit| Team | Region | Method of qualification |
Date of qualification |
Finals appearance |
Previous appearance |
Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kárpátalja |
Europe | 2018 Champion | 9 June 2018 | 2nd | 2018 | Champion (2018) |
 Kurdistan Region |
Asia | Host team | 9 May 2023 | 3rd | 2014, 2016 | Quarterfinalist (2014, 2016) |
 Raetia |
Europe | European Group B Winner | 17 June 2023 | 2nd | 2016 | Group stage (2016) |
 Székely Land |
Europe | European Group C Winner | 2 July 2023 | 3rd | 2016, 2018 | Fourth (2018) |
 Cornwall |
Europe | European Group A Winner | 16 July 2023 | 1st | — | — |
 Tamil Eelam |
Asia | Asia Football Cup Winner | 8 August 2023 | 3rd | 2016, 2018 | Group Stage (2016) |
 Tibet |
Asia | Asia Football Cup Third Place | 8 August 2023 | 2nd | 2018 | Group Stage (2018) |
 ANBM |
North America | Selected | 18 August 2023 | 1st | — | — |
 Kabylie |
Africa | Selected | 14 September 2023 | 2nd | 2018 | Group Stage (2018) |
 Abkhazia |
Europe | Selected | 14 September 2023 | 4th | 2014, 2016, 2018 | Champion (2016) |
 Panjab |
Asia | Selected | 7 November 2023 | 2nd | 2016, 2018 | Runners-up (2016) |
 Kashmir |
Asia | Selected | 7 November 2023 | 1st | — | — |
 Two Sicilies |
Europe | Selected | 7 November 2023 | 1st | — | — |
 South Ossetia |
Europe | Selected | 7 November 2023 | 2nd | 2014 | Fourth (2014) |
 Canton Ticino |
Europe | Selected | 7 November 2023 | 1st | — | — |
 São Paulo FAD |
South America | Selected | 28 February 2024 | 1st | — | — |
 Maule Sur |
South America | Selected | 20 March 2024 | 1st | — | — |
References
edit- ^ "Last month our president confirmed that the 2024 CONIFA World Cup hosting rights were awarded to @KurdistanFA". CONIFA Official. 9 May 2023.
- ^ "Official Statement". X. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
- ^ "Suspension of Kurdistan FA". CONIFA. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
- ^ "Unreleased CONIFA Video". X. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
- ^ "Kurdistan Region to host CONIFA World Cup 2024". Kurdistan 24. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
- ^ "Men´s World Football Cup 2024 – qualification". CONIFA. 7 December 2022.
- ^ https://twitter.com/kanakapowawae/status/1686468773749063682?s=20
- ^ Based on presentation during 2024 Annual General Meeting[1]