2016 ConIFA World Football Cup

2016 ConIFA World Football Cup
Tournament details
Host country	Abkhazia
Dates	29 May – 5 June
Teams	12
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Abkhazia (1st title)
Runners-up	Panjab
Third place	Northern Cyprus
Fourth place	Padania
Tournament statistics
Matches played	28
Goals scored	115 (4.11 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Amar Purewal (7 goals)
	← 2014 2018 →

The 2016 ConIFA World Football Cup was the second 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 the Football Federation of Abkhazia, with the Abkhazia team becoming the first host nation to win the tournament.

Host selection edit

Following the 2015 ConIFA European Football Cup, in which the teams from Abkhazia and South Ossetia were refused visas by the Hungarian government, ConIFA announced that they had delivered strong objections to what they saw as political interference.^[1] As a consequence, in July 2015, ConIFA announced that its executive committee had unanimously voted to award the 2016 World Football Cup to Abkhazia. It stated that, in addition to the quality of the bid, the decision would send out the message that ConIFA would stand by all of its members.^[1]

Hosts edit

Abkhazia

Sukhumi	Gagra
Dinamo Stadium	Daur Akhvlediani Stadium

43°00′18″N 41°00′52″E / 43.004911°N 41.014472°E / 43.004911; 41.014472 (Dinamo Stadium)	43°17′10″N 40°15′38″E / 43.2860657°N 40.2606291°E / 43.2860657; 40.2606291 (Daur Akhvlediani Stadium)
Capacity:4,300	Capacity:1,500
Sukhumi Gagra

Qualification edit

Partial world map showing the national teams that entered the 2016 ConIFA World Football Cup. Note that the Panjab and Chagos teams largely consisted of diaspora members living in England.

The 2016 World Football Cup was the first ConIFA tournament to feature qualification, as the competitors in both the previous tournament and 2015 European Football Cup were invited. The qualification process was designed around a number of different tournaments; initially, ConIFA announced that the top three teams in the 2015 EFC would gain automatic qualification for the 2016 WFC.^[2] Subsequent to this decision, ConIFA announced that it would sanction a number of friendly tournaments featuring its members as part of the qualification, with the first of these being the Niamh Challenge Cup, a four team tournament hosted by Ellan Vannin.^[3] A further tournament, the Benedikt Fontana Cup was also planned to be hosted by Raetia.^[4] The winners of these tournaments would gain qualification to the WFC.

In addition to the hosts, and the teams that gained entry to the tournament through the qualification process, ConIFA extended an invitation to the team representing the Aymara people to become the first South American side to participate.^[5]

Qualified teams edit

Team	Continent	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Finals appearance	Previous appearance	Previous best performance	Notes
Aymará	South America	Invitation	13 May 2015	1st	N/A	N/A	Subsequently, withdrew from competition
Ellan Vannin	Europe	Niamh Challenge Cup winners	31 May 2015	2nd	2014	Runners-up (2014)	Subsequently, withdrew from competition
Padania	Europe	European Football Cup Winner	21 June 2015	2nd	2014	5th Place (2014)	Expelled from competition subsequent to qualification; subsequently restored following withdrawal of Romani People
County of Nice	Europe	European Football Cup Runner-up	21 June 2015	2nd	2014	Winners (2014)	Subsequently, withdrew from competition
Abkhazia	Europe	Host	7 July 2015	2nd	2014	8th Place (2014)
Raetia	Europe	Benedikt Fontana Cup Winners	6 September 2015	1st	N/A	N/A
Somaliland	Africa	Selected	9 January 2016	1st	N/A	N/A
Chagos Islands	Asia	Selected	9 January 2016	1st	N/A	N/A
Kurdistan Region	Asia	Selected	9 January 2016	2nd	2014	6th Place (2014)
Panjab	Asia	Selected	9 January 2016	1st	N/A	N/A
United Koreans in Japan	Asia	Selected	9 January 2016	1st	N/A	N/A
Northern Cyprus	Europe	Selected	9 January 2016	1st	N/A	N/A
Romani people	Europe	Selected	9 January 2016	1st	N/A	N/A	Subsequently, withdrew from competition
Sápmi	Europe	Selected	9 January 2016	2nd	2014	10th Place (2014)
Western Armenia	Europe	Selected	9 January 2016	1st	N/A	N/A
Székely Land	Europe	Selected	2 March 2016	1st	N/A	N/A	Replaced Padania

Draw edit

The twelve participating teams were divided into three pots of four for the group stage, which would see them drawn into four groups of three. The draw was made by ConIFA World President Per-Anders Blind in Luleå on 1 April 2016:^[6]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Abkhazia Kurdistan Region Northern Cyprus Panjab	Romani people Sápmi Chagos Islands Székely Land	Somaliland Western Armenia United Koreans in Japan Raetia

Withdrawals edit

In December 2015, following advice from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office over security concerns regarding travel to Abkhazia, the Manx Independent Football Alliance announced that the Ellan Vannin team would withdraw from the World Football Cup, and instead take part in the 2016 Europeada Championship in Italy.^[7] Subsequently, both the Aymará team, and County of Nice also withdrew.

In March 2016, ConIFA announced that Padania had been expelled from the tournament due to procedural irregularities, to be replaced by Székely Land.^[8]

In May 2016, three weeks prior to the start of the tournament, ConIFA announced that the Romani team had been forced to withdraw from the tournament due to difficulties in obtaining travel documents for their squad. Padania, who had been expelled, were invited to take the place of the Romani team.^[9]

Matches edit

Group stage edit

Key to colours in group tables
	Team advanced to the quarter-finals
	Team in the 9th-12th-place play-offs

Group A edit

Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Abkhazia	2	2	0	10	0	+10	6
Western Armenia	2	1	1	12	1	+11	3
Chagos Islands	2	0	2	0	21	−21	0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

29 May 2016

20:00 GET

Abkhazia	9–0	Chagos Islands
Dmitri Kortava 18' (pen.) Vladimir Argun 19' Dmitri Akhba 34' Albert Prus 39', 43' Ruslan Shoniya 47', 57' Astamur Tarba 50' Victor Pimpia 88'	Report

Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Kurdistan Region	2	2	0	6	0	+6	6
United Koreans in Japan	2	1	1	1	3	−2	3
Székely Land	2	0	2	0	4	−4	0

Quarter-finals		Semi-finals		Final

1 June – Sukhumi

United Koreans in Japan	1 (2)
		4 June – Sukhumi
Northern Cyprus	1 (4)
		Northern Cyprus	0
1 June – Sukhumi
		Abkhazia	2
Abkhazia	2
				5 June – Sukhumi
Sápmi	0
				Abkhazia	1 (6)
2 June – Sukhumi
				Panjab	1 (5)
Kurdistan Region	2 (6)
		4 June – Sukhumi
Padania	2 (7)
		Padania	0
2 June – Sukhumi
		Panjab	1	Third place
Western Armenia	2
				5 June – Sukhumi
Panjab	3
				Padania	0

				Northern Cyprus	2

United Koreans in Japan	1–1	Northern Cyprus
On Song-tae 54'		Ünal Kaya 31'
Penalties
Kim Kwang-woo On Song-tae Kim Su-yong An Suug-tae	2–4	Esin Sonay Halil Turan Ünal Kaya Ibrahim Çıdamlı

Kurdistan Region	2–2	Padania
Matteo Prandelli 22' (o.g.) Jassim Mohammed Haji 25'		Luca Ferri 13' Marco Garavelli 71'
Penalties
Kosrat Baiz Kamaran Ali (?) Khalid Mushir Diyar Rahman Farhan Shakor Hunar Ahmad (?) Miran Khesro	6–7	Matteo Prandelli Marco Garavelli Alex Mazzocca Luca Mosti (?) Luca Ferri Stefano Tignonsini (?) Gianluca Rolandone (?) Antonio Pizzolla

Abkhazia	1–1	Panjab
Ruslan Shoniya 88'	Report	Amar Purewal 57'
Penalties
Anri Khagba Anri Khagush Dmitriy Akhba Tarash Khagba Ruslan Shoniya Alan Khugaev Shabat Logua Vladimir Argun	6–5	Amar Purewal Radjpal Virk Terlochan Singh Karum Shanker Jhai Dhillon Aran Basi Amarvir Sandhu Aaron Minhas

Placement round 1		Placement round 2		Placings
2 June – Gagra		3 June – Gagra		Sápmi	5th place
Chagos Islands	2	Chagos Islands	3 (2)	Western Armenia	6th Place
Somaliland	3	Raetia	3 (3)	United Koreans in Japan	7th Place
2 June – Gagra		3 June – Gagra		Kurdistan Region	8th Place
Székely Land	7	Somaliland	3	Székely Land	9th place
Raetia	0	Székely Land	10	Somaliland	10th place
3 June – Sukhumi		4 June – Gagra		Raetia	11th place
United Koreans in Japan	1	United Koreans in Japan	1 (4)	Chagos Islands	12th place
Sápmi	2	Kurdistan Region	1 (2)
3 June – Sukhumi		4 June – Gagra
Kurdistan Region	0 (5)	Sápmi	3
Western Armenia	0 (6)	Western Armenia	0

Kurdistan Region	0–0	Western Armenia

Penalties
Miran Khesro Farhan Shakor Hunar Ahmad Farhang Wriya Diyar Rahman Aras Mustafa Znar Faidhi	5–6	Hiraç Yagan Raffi Kaya Tamaz Avolian Loris Berberian Jules Tepelian Herant Yagan Denis Oz

United Koreans in Japan	1–1	Kurdistan Region
An Suug-tae 90+5'		? 80'
Penalties
Kim Su-yong An Suug-tae Kim Kwang-woo Huo Yang Shin Yong-ki	4–2

2016 ConIFA World Football Cup

Host selection edit

Hosts edit

Qualification edit

Qualified teams edit

Draw edit

Withdrawals edit

Matches edit

Group stage edit

Group A edit

Group B edit

Group C edit

Group D edit

Knockout stage edit

Quarter-finals edit

Semi-finals edit

Third-Place play-off edit

Final edit

Placement Rounds edit

Placement Round 1 edit

Placement Round 2 edit

Final Positions edit

References edit

External links edit