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 LondonSuttonBromleyEnfieldHaringeyGander Green LaneHayes LaneQueen Elizabeth II StadiumColes ParkCapacity: 5,000Capacity: 5,000Capacity: 2,500Capacity: 2,500Greater LondonGreater LondonCarshaltonRotherhitheColston AvenueSt Paul's Sports GroundCapacity: 5,000Capacity: 1,000Greater LondonEssexBedfontAveleyBedfont Recreation GroundParksideCapacity: 3,000Capacity: 3,500BerkshireBracknellSloughLarges LaneArbour ParkCapacity: 2,500Capacity: 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 pointsOpposition Factor (OF)Result Factor (RF)CONIFA Member = 3Win = 3Other internationalopposition = 2Draw = 2Any other opposition = 1Defeat = 1Points for a single match = OF × RFMatches 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 ofqualification Date ofqualification Finalsappearance Previousappearance Previous bestperformance NotesAsiaConIFA Challenger Cup winners13 March 20162nd2014Placement round (2014)EuropeConIFA World Football Cup winners6 June 20163rd2016Winners (2016)Europe Hungary Heritage Cup winners3 August 20161stN/AN/ASubsequently withdrewAsiaWild card14 January 20172nd2016Quarter-final (2016)AfricaHost8 June 20171stN/AN/AAsiaWild card8 June 20171stN/AN/AOceaniaRegional qualification8 June 20171stN/AN/ASubsequently withdrewNorth AmericaRegional qualification8 June 20171stN/AN/AEuropeConIFA European Football Cup winners10 June 20173rd20164th place (2016)EuropeConIFA European Football Cup runners-up10 June 20172nd20163rd place (2016)AsiaRegional qualification2 September 20172nd20162nd place (2016)AsiaRegional qualification2 September 20172nd2016Quarter-final (2016)AfricaRegional qualification2 September 20171stN/AN/AAfricaRegional qualification2 September 20171stN/AN/AEuropeRegional qualification2 September 20172nd20142nd place (2014)EuropeRegional qualification2 September 20172nd2016Placement round (2016)OceaniaReplacement7 March 20181stN/AN/AReplaced KiribatiEuropeReplacement4 May 20181stN/AN/AReplaced 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 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4
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.
Squads
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.
RefereesRefereeCountryMark ClattenburgEnglandOliver PotterKarl ParkerIgor GorshkovCanadaClément AuclairFranceRaymond MashambaZimbabweDmitrii ZhukovUkraineVitalii MazinValerii KravchenkoAleksandr DemenkoGivi ToduaRussiaKristian MichelSlovakiaVinze OttenNetherlandsAlan MartinezUnited StatesDavid MurphyScotlandJames TurpinIsle of ManDenis Pérez GonzálezSpainAndrew Mario ParodyGibraltarUtku HamamciogluTurkeyFehim DayıNorthern CyprusZekai ToreIsfendiyar AçiksozEsposito PasqualeItalyMario GuastafierroMassimo AmitranoMario SassoWilhelm GürtlerGermanyRené JacobiMartin HeilandMartin RauhLeon DastychIvan Mrkalj
Matches
Group stage
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third-place play-off
Final
Placement Rounds
Placement Round 1
Placement Round 2
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 ) Tenzin Gelek (for )
Final positions
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