# 2018 CONIFA World Football Cup

The 2018 CONIFA World Football Cup was the third edition of the CONIFA World Football Cup, an international football tournament for states, minorities, stateless peoples and regions unaffiliated with FIFA organised by CONIFA. The tournament was hosted by Barawa Football Association, with all games held in and around London. The tournament was sponsored by Irish bookmaker Paddy Power. After being a late entry to the tournament, Kárpátalja won their first title on 9 June 2018, defeating Northern Cyprus 3–2 on penalties in the final (0–0 after 90 minutes).

## Host selection

In June 2017, at the CONIFA meeting held during the 2017 CONIFA European Football Cup, it was announced that the Barawa Football Association had been selected to act as the host for the 2018 CONIFA World Football Cup. However, under CONIFA's criteria, the "host" is the CONIFA member that heads the organising committee for the tournament, which does not necessarily mean that it needs to be played in the host's territory. Barawa is located in Somalia, but the Barawa FA represents members of the Somali diaspora in England.

## Venues

The first two CONIFA World Football Cup tournaments both featured no more than two venues each; the 2014 tournament featured all games played at the same stadium, while the 2016 edition had a stadium in each of two cities. The expansion from twelve to sixteen participants in 2018 saw a significant expansion in the number of venues used, with a total of ten selected in four separate towns and cities - of these, seven were located in Greater London itself, two were in the towns of Slough and Bracknell in Berkshire, and one in the borough of Thurrock in Essex.
Greater London :
| Sutton | Bromley | Enfield | Haringey |
| Gander Green Lane | Hayes Lane | Queen Elizabeth II Stadium | Coles Park |
| Capacity: 5,000 | Capacity: 5,000 | Capacity: 2,500 | Capacity: 2,500 |
| Greater London | AveleySuttonBromleyEnfieldHaringeyCarshaltonRotherhitheBedfont | AveleySuttonBromleyEnfieldHaringeyCarshaltonRotherhitheBedfont | Greater London |
| Carshalton | AveleySuttonBromleyEnfieldHaringeyCarshaltonRotherhitheBedfont | AveleySuttonBromleyEnfieldHaringeyCarshaltonRotherhitheBedfont | Rotherhithe |
| Colston Avenue | AveleySuttonBromleyEnfieldHaringeyCarshaltonRotherhitheBedfont | AveleySuttonBromleyEnfieldHaringeyCarshaltonRotherhitheBedfont | St Paul's Sports Ground |
| Capacity: 5,000 | AveleySuttonBromleyEnfieldHaringeyCarshaltonRotherhitheBedfont | AveleySuttonBromleyEnfieldHaringeyCarshaltonRotherhitheBedfont | Capacity: 1,000 |
| Greater London | SloughBracknell | SloughBracknell | Essex |
| Bedfont | SloughBracknell | SloughBracknell | Aveley |
| Bedfont Recreation Ground | SloughBracknell | SloughBracknell | Parkside |
| Capacity: 3,000 | SloughBracknell | SloughBracknell | Capacity: 3,500 |
| Berkshire ||||
| Bracknell | Bracknell | Slough | Slough |
| Larges Lane | Larges Lane | Arbour Park | Arbour Park |
| Capacity: 2,500 | Capacity: 2,500 | Capacity: 2,000 | Capacity: 2,000 |

## Qualification

The process of qualification for the World Football Cup was originally laid out in a set of criteria published by CONIFA at its 2017 annual general meeting, which goes into the various ways by which teams can qualify. This was subsequently revised by CONIFA in June 2017.
* Host - Providing at least 10 places are available for other qualifiers, then all hosts will qualify automatically. If there are less than 10 other places available, then the number of automatic host places is calculated by the total number of places in the tournament minus 10.
* World Football Cup Holder - The current holder of the World Football Cup qualifies automatically.
* Wild Card - CONIFA's Executive Committee issues a Wild Card place to a team that has not yet qualified for the WFC no later than 9 months prior to the start of the tournament. The committee also has the right to issue a second Wild Card if approved by CONIFA's Annual General Meeting.
* Qualification tournament - Any member of CONIFA has the right to request that a tournament it hosts be sanctioned as a qualifier, providing it is held between 1 January of the year of the previous WFC, and 31 December of the year before the next WFC, and consists of at least four CONIFA members. The request to have the tournament sanctioned as a qualifier must be submitted at least two months prior to the start, and must be approved by CONIFA's Executive Committee.
* Continental tournament - If a CONIFA continental championship is held after the previous WFC, then a number of its participants qualify for the WFC; the total qualifiers is worked out by the number of participants in the tournament divided by 4.
* Qualification points - Remaining places are distributed according to the final positions in the various CONIFA continental rankings according to their accumulated ranking points. If two or more teams have the same number of qualification points, qualification will be determined by the CONIFA World Rankings.
Qualification points :
| Opposition Factor (OF) | Result Factor (RF) |
| CONIFA Member = 3 | Win = 3 |
| Other international opposition = 2 | Draw = 2 |
| Any other opposition = 1 | Defeat = 1 |
| Points for a single match = OF × RF ||
| Matches played in WFC do not count towards qualification points totals. Only the first two matches between teams accrue points. Additional matches are only considered if played as part of a tournament. Only the ten matches where a team accrued the most points are considered. If a member hosts a continental championship during the qualifying period, it receives additional points (number of participants × 3). ||
By the criteria set out, the qualification process began in January 2016, when Western Armenia played its first official game against the reserve team of the French club Olympique de Marseille. The first team to qualify automatically was Tamil Eelam, by winning the single match CONIFA Challenger Cup against the Romani people in March 2016. Following this, two further, multi-team competitions were awarded qualification status by CONIFA, the Hungary Heritage Cup, played between four CONIFA members representing the Hungarian diaspora, and the World Unity Cup, which was a tournament containing teams representing a number of displaced peoples. The winners of both of these tournaments were guaranteed qualification for the World Football Cup.

### Qualified teams

| Team | Region | Method of qualification | Date of qualification | Finals appearance | Previous appearance | Previous best performance | Notes |
| Tamil Eelam | Asia | ConIFA Challenger Cup winners | 13 March 2016 | 2nd | 2014 | Placement round (2014) | |
| Abkhazia | Europe | ConIFA World Football Cup winners | 6 June 2016 | 3rd | 2016 | Winners (2016) | |
| Felvidék | Europe | Hungary Heritage Cup winners | 3 August 2016 | 1st | N/A | N/A | Subsequently withdrew |
| Western Armenia | Asia | Wild card | 14 January 2017 | 2nd | 2016 | Quarter-final (2016) | |
| Barawa | Africa | Host | 8 June 2017 | 1st | N/A | N/A | |
| Tibet | Asia | Wild card | 8 June 2017 | 1st | N/A | N/A | |
| Kiribati | Oceania | Regional qualification | 8 June 2017 | 1st | N/A | N/A | Subsequently withdrew |
| Cascadia | North America | Regional qualification | 8 June 2017 | 1st | N/A | N/A | |
| Padania | Europe | ConIFA European Football Cup winners | 10 June 2017 | 3rd | 2016 | 4th place (2016) | |
| Northern Cyprus | Europe | ConIFA European Football Cup runners-up | 10 June 2017 | 2nd | 2016 | 3rd place (2016) | |
| Panjab | Asia | Regional qualification | 2 September 2017 | 2nd | 2016 | 2nd place (2016) | |
| United Koreans in Japan | Asia | Regional qualification | 2 September 2017 | 2nd | 2016 | Quarter-final (2016) | |
| Matabeleland | Africa | Regional qualification | 2 September 2017 | 1st | N/A | N/A | |
| Kabylia | Africa | Regional qualification | 2 September 2017 | 1st | N/A | N/A | |
| Ellan Vannin | Europe | Regional qualification | 2 September 2017 | 2nd | 2014 | 2nd place (2014) | |
| Székely Land | Europe | Regional qualification | 2 September 2017 | 2nd | 2016 | Placement round (2016) | |
| Tuvalu | Oceania | Replacement | 7 March 2018 | 1st | N/A | N/A | Replaced Kiribati |
| Kárpátalja | Europe | Replacement | 4 May 2018 | 1st | N/A | N/A | Replaced Felvidék |

### Draw

In December 2017, the sixteen participating teams were seeded into four pots of four for the group stage draw, based on the ConIFA rankings. The draw for the group stage was held on 6 January 2018 in Northern Cyprus.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| Barawa  Abkhazia  Panjab  Padania | Northern Cyprus  Székely Land  United Koreans in Japan  Ellan Vannin | Felvidék  Tamil Eelam  Western Armenia  Kiribati | Tibet  Matabeleland  Kabylia  Cascadia |

### Withdrawals

In March 2018, ConIFA announced that, owing to financial difficulties, the Kiribati team had been forced to withdraw from the tournament, with their place taken by Tuvalu. In May 2018, it was announced that the Felvidék team had withdrawn, to be replaced by Kárpátalja.

## Referees

ConIFA announced a total of 28 referees for the tournament, led by former Premier League official Mark Clattenburg. During the tournament, referees used a third card in addition to the red and yellow; the green card, introduced as a concept by the tournament sponsor Paddy Power, was issued to players either for dissent or diving; a player given a green card was required to be substituted immediately.
Referees :
| Referee | Country |
| Mark Clattenburg | England |
| Oliver Potter | England |
| Karl Parker | England |
| Igor Gorshkov | Canada |
| Clément Auclair | France |
| Raymond Mashamba | Zimbabwe |
| Dmitrii Zhukov | Ukraine |
| Vitalii Mazin | Ukraine |
| Valerii Kravchenko | Ukraine |
| Aleksandr Demenko | Ukraine |
| Givi Todua | Russia |
| Kristian Michel | Slovakia |
| Vinze Otten | Netherlands |
| Alan Martinez | United States |
| David Murphy | Scotland |
| James Turpin | Isle of Man |
| Denis Pérez González | Spain |
| Andrew Mario Parody | Gibraltar |
| Utku Hamamcioglu | Turkey |
| Fehim Dayı | Northern Cyprus |
| Zekai Tore | Northern Cyprus |
| Isfendiyar Açiksoz | Northern Cyprus |
| Esposito Pasquale | Italy |
| Mario Guastafierro | Italy |
| Massimo Amitrano | Italy |
| Mario Sasso | Italy |
| Wilhelm Gürtler | Germany |
| René Jacobi | Germany |
| Martin Heiland | Germany |
| Martin Rauh | Germany |
| Leon Dastych | Germany |
| Ivan Mrkalj | Germany |

## Matches
### Group stage
#### Group A

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| Barawa | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 | +5 | 6 | Advance to quarter-finals |
| Cascadia | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 6 | Advance to quarter-finals |
| Ellan Vannin | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 6 | Advance to placement round |
| Tamil Eelam | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 12 | −12 | 0 | Advance to placement round |

#### Group B

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| Kárpátalja | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 2 | +6 | 7 | Advance to quarter-finals |
| Northern Cyprus | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 5 | Advance to quarter-finals |
| Abkhazia | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 4 | Advance to placement round |
| Tibet | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 | −9 | 0 | Advance to placement round |

#### Group C

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| Padania | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 2 | +15 | 9 | Advance to quarter-finals |
| Székely Land | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 3 | +7 | 6 | Advance to quarter-finals |
| Matabeleland | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 12 | −8 | 3 | Advance to placement round |
| Tuvalu | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 15 | −14 | 0 | Advance to placement round |

#### Group D

| Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| Western Armenia | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | +5 | 7 | Advance to quarter-finals |
| Panjab | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 4 | Advance to quarter-finals |
| United Koreans in Japan | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | Advance to placement round |
| Kabylia | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 12 | −12 | 1 | Advance to placement round |

### Knockout stage

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | | Final | Final |
| 5 June – Sutton | 5 June – Sutton | | | |
| Barawa | 0 | | | |
| Barawa | 0 | 7 June – Carshalton | 7 June – Carshalton | | |
| Northern Cyprus | 8 | 7 June – Carshalton | 7 June – Carshalton | |
| Northern Cyprus | 8 | Northern Cyprus | 3 | |
| 5 June – Bracknell | 5 June – Bracknell | | Northern Cyprus | 3 | |
| 5 June – Bracknell | 5 June – Bracknell | Padania | 2 | |
| Padania | 2 | Padania | 2 | |
| Padania | 2 | | | | 9 June – Enfield | 9 June – Enfield |
| Panjab | 0 | | | | 9 June – Enfield | 9 June – Enfield |
| Panjab | 0 | | | | Northern Cyprus | 0 (2) |
| 5 June – Sutton | 5 June – Sutton | | | | | Northern Cyprus | 0 (2) |
| 5 June – Sutton | 5 June – Sutton | | | | Kárpátalja | 0 (3) |
| Kárpátalja | 3 | | | | Kárpátalja | 0 (3) |
| Kárpátalja | 3 | 7 June – Carshalton | 7 June – Carshalton | | | |
| Cascadia | 1 | 7 June – Carshalton | 7 June – Carshalton | | | |
| Cascadia | 1 | Kárpátalja | 4 | | | |
| 5 June – Bromley | 5 June – Bromley | | Kárpátalja | 4 | | | |
| 5 June – Bromley | 5 June – Bromley | Székely Land | 2 | | Third place | Third place |
| Western Armenia | 0 | Székely Land | 2 | | Third place | Third place |
| Western Armenia | 0 | | | | 9 June – Enfield | 9 June – Enfield |
| Székely Land | 4 | | | | 9 June – Enfield | 9 June – Enfield |
| Székely Land | 4 | | | | Padania | 0 (5) |
| | | | | | Székely Land | 0 (4) |

#### Final

| Northern Cyprus | Kárpátalja |
* ConIFA World Football Cup 2018 winners
* Kárpátalja First title

### Placement Rounds
#### Placement Round 3
## Statistics
### Goalscorers
#### 6 goals

* Kamaljit Singh

#### 5 goals

* Calum Ferguson
* Halil Turan
* Barna Bajkó

#### 4 goals

* Ruslan Akhvlediani
* Sami Boudia
* Billy Mehmet
* Giacomo Innocenti

#### 3 goals

* Ruslan Shoniya
* Zsolt Gajdos
* Ronald Takács
* Uğur Gök
* Federico Corno
* Giulio Valente
* Nathan Minhas
* Amar Singh Purewal
* Szilárd Magyari
* Prashanth Ragavan
* Vahagn Militosyan

#### 2 goals

* Shabat Logua
* Dmitri Maskayev
* Mohamed Bettamer
* Shaun Lucien
* Josh Doughty
* Yuri Farkas
* Tayshan Hayden-Smith
* Hector Morales
* Jon Nouble
* Sam Caine
* Stephen Whitley
* Enzo Mezaib
* Gergő Gyürki
* István Sándor
* György Toma
* Thabiso Ndlela
* Shylock Ndlovu
* Gabriele Piantoni
* Riccardo Ravasi
* Nicolò Pavan
* William Rosset
* Amarvir Sandhu
* Gurjit Singh
* Csaba Csizmadia
* Kalsang Topgyal
* Tenzin Yougyal
* Alopua Petoa
* Lee Tong-soung
* Mun Su-hyeon
* Arman Mosoyan
* Vicken Valenza-Berberian

#### 1 goal

* Vladimir Argun
* Aleksandr Kogoniya
* Georgi Zhanaa
* Astamur Tarba
* Gianni Crichlow
* Shaquille Ismail
* Solomon Sambou
* Hamza Haddadi
* Max Oldham
* Frank Jones
* Jack McVey
* Nadjim Bouabbas
* Ilyas Hadid
* Csaba Peres
* György Sándor
* Alex Svedjuk
* Sipho Mlalazi
* Ünal Kaya
* Serhan Önet
* Kenan Oshan
* Tansel Osman
* Ersid Pllumbaj
* Gianluca Rolandone
* Andrea Rota
* Rajpal Singh Virk
* István Fülöp
* Lóránd Fülöp
* Arthur Györgyi
* László Hodgyai
* László Szőcs
* Zsolt Tankó
* Janothan Perananthan
* Sosene Vailine
* Etimoni Timuani
* Shin Yong-ju
* Ken Taniyama
* Fabrice Guzel
* David Hovsepyan
* Norik Hovsepyan
* Zaven Varjabetyan
* Artur Yedigaryan

#### Own goals

* Ayuub Ali (for Northern Cyprus)
* Tenzin Gelek (for United Koreans in Japan)

## Final positions

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
| 1 | Kárpátalja | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 5 | +10 |
| 2 | Northern Cyprus | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 17 | 6 | +11 |
| 3 | Padania | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 5 | +16 |
| 4 | Székely Land | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 7 | +9 |
| 5 | Panjab | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 7 | +10 |
| 6 | Cascadia | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 11 | +6 |
| 7 | Western Armenia | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 8 | +4 |
| 8 | Barawa | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 22 | −15 |
| 9 | Abkhazia | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 4 | +11 |
| 10 | Kabylia | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 15 | −7 |
| 11 | United Koreans in Japan | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 4 | +3 |
| 12 | Tibet | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 20 | −16 |
| 13 | Matabeleland | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 12 | −7 |
| 14 | Tamil Eelam | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 22 | −18 |
| 15 | Tuvalu | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 24 | −20 |
| 16 | Ellan Vannin | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 3 | +3 |
* ↑ Ellan Vannin withdrew from the competition after the group stage.

### Player awards

Three individual awards were handed out by ConIFA at the conclusion of the tournament:
* Paddy Power Player of the Tournament: Béla Fejér
* ConIFA Golden Boot: Kamaljit Singh
* Global FCE Young Player of the Tournament: Sami Boudia
As winner of Young Player of the Tournament, Sami Boudia was offered a one-month residency at one of the Global Football Centre Of Excellence's academies.

## Marketing
### Tournament programme

A programme for the entire tournament was produced, with the bulk of the content produced by football writer Mat Guy and blogger Pat McGuinness, and produced by Programme Master. The tournament is also documented in detail in the book CONIFA: Football For The Forgotten by journalist James Hendicott, which centres around events in London and the history of the teams involved.

### Official anthem

The official anthem of the tournament is "Bring The House Down" by English duo Right Said Fred, which was released on 29 May 2018.

## Controversies
### Ellan Vannin withdrawal

Following the completion of the group stage, Ellan Vannin entered a protest regarding the fact that Barawa had been able to bring in a replacement player to their squad after the tournament had started, in apparent contravention of the tournament's rules. The addition of the player, Mohamed Bettamer, a former Libyan youth international, was permitted by ConIFA, who stated that this was a rule change, but who did not inform the other 15 teams in the competition, who had submitted their own squad lists according to the published pre-tournament rule book. Ellan Vannin launched an appeal against the Barawa team's fielding of an apparently ineligible player, which at an initial meeting of the tournament committee was upheld, before subsequently being overturned. As a result, Ellan Vannin withdrew from the remainder of the tournament, and Tibet, their opponents in the First Placement Round, were awarded a 3–0 victory. Their place in the remaining fixtures were taken by Chagos Islands. A meeting of ConIFA's Executive Committee made the decision to provisionally expel the Manx Independent Football Alliance from the organization on 7 June, subject to ratification at the Annual General Meeting in January 2019. They were reinstated in January.

#### Goalscorers
##### 3 goals

* Hassan Nalbant

##### 2 goals

* Okilani Tinilau
* Matti Uaelasi

##### 1 goal

* Ivanov Leonce
* Musa Sthamburi
* Ali Uyar Avci
* Sosene Vailine

##### Own goals

* Nicolas Oride (against Tuvalu)

## Broadcasting rights

CONIFA provided live streaming through football streaming service Mycujoo and edited highlights provided by FC Video. Select games were also live streamed on the Paddy Power Facebook page.
In Northern Cyprus the games were broadcast by EURO GENÇ TV.