2016 ConIFA World Football Cup qualification

The 2016 ConIFA World Football Cup qualification is a process to decide a number of the teams that will play in the 2016 ConIFA World Football Cup. Unlike the previous tournament, this will be the first one that will use a measure of qualification. The first qualification match played was on 30 May 2015 between the newly constituted Felvidék team and the team representing Alderney, with the first goal scored by Felvidék's Zoltán Novota.

2016 ConIFA World Football Cup qualification
Tournament details
Dates30 May 2015 – 6 September 2015
Teams10 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played15
Goals scored56 (3.73 per match)
Top scorer(s) Franck Delerue
(5 goals)

Background

The Confederation of Independent Football Associations (ConIFA) was founded in June 2013, as an organisation to represent football associations that are not eligible or choose not to join FIFA.[1] One year later, it held its first official tournament, the 2014 ConIFA World Football Cup, in Sweden, to which the twelve participating teams were invited. The success of this tournament led to the decision to make it a biannual competition, with continental tournaments taking place in between, the first of which was the 2015 ConIFA European Football Cup.

During the planning process for the European Football Cup, ConIFA took the decision that, in addition to finding its first European champions, the competition would also serve as a qualification tournament for the 2016 World Football Cup, with the top three teams gaining automatic entry into the WFC.[2] The finalised European Football Cup eventually featured a total of six teams, including both the current WFC champions, Countea de Nissea, and the runners up, Ellan Vannin. A number of the participants undertook warm-up games prior to the start of the tournament,[3] with Ellan Vannin planning a pair of back-to-back charity games over the weekend of the 30–31 May against Alderney.[4][5] However, in mid-May 2015, a few weeks prior to the fixtures taking place, the fixtures as planned were cancelled and replaced by a four team tournament called the Niamh Challenge Cup, with Ellan Vannin and Alderney joined by teams representing Felvidék and Punjab. At the same time, ConIFA announced that they were officially sanctioning the tournament, with the winners gaining automatic entry to the WFC.[6] A second tournament, the Benedikt Fontana Cup, hosted in Switzerland by the Fussballauswahl Raetia, was announced as taking place in parallel with the EFC in June 2015, with three participants, including the hosts Raetia, Felvidék and the Chagos Islands. ConIFA also announced that this too would serve as a qualification tournament for the WFC, with the winner gaining automatic entry.[7]

In addition to the qualification process that ConIFA put in place, the organisation announced in May that it had reached an agreement with the football association representing the Aymara people for their team to be the first South Americans to play at the World Football Cup.[8]

On 7 July ConIFA announced that Abkhazia had been selected as the host of the 2016 ConIFA World Football Cup, which simultaneously means they will be taking part.[9]

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.[10]

Qualified teams
Team Method of
qualification		 Date of
qualification		 Finals
appearance		 Previous
appearance		 Previous best
performance		 Notes
Aymará Invitation 13 May 2015 1st N/A N/A Subsequently, withdrew from competition
Ellan Vannin Niamh Challenge Cup winners 31 May 2015 2nd 2014 Runners-up (2014) Subsequently, withdrew from competition
 Padania European Football Cup Winner 21 June 2015 2nd 2014 5th place (2014) Initially expelled from competition, but subsequently restored
 County of Nice European Football Cup Runner Up 21 June 2015 2nd 2014 Winners (2014) Subsequently, withdrew from competition
 Abkhazia Host 7 July 2015 2nd 2014 8th place (2014)
 Raetia Benedikt Fontana Cup Winners 6 September 2015 1st N/A N/A

Qualification

In the qualification process, Ellan Vannin and Felvidek had two opportunities to qualify; through the Niamh Challenge Cup and the ConIFA European Football Cup.

Niamh Challenge Cup

The Niamh Challenge Cup was a four-team knockout tournament over two days; the winners of the two games played on the first day advanced to the final, with the winner of that game qualifying automatically for the WFC.

30 May 2015 (2015-05-30) Match 1 Alderney  1–2 Felvidék The Bowl, Douglas
11:30 BST Josh Concanen  60'  40' Zoltan Novatar
 61' Attilia Dalonky
30 May 2015 (2015-05-30) Match 2 Ellan Vannin 8–1 Panjab The Bowl, Douglas
15:00 BST Sean Quaye  11', 37'
Ciaran McNulty  15'
Conor Doyle  44'
Frank Jones  50', 55'
Furo Davies  67'
Liam Doyle  75'		 ?  28' Referee: Andrew Lodge (Isle of Man)
31 May 2015 (2015-05-31) Final Felvidék 1–3 Ellan Vannin The Bowl, Douglas
17:30 BST Attila Dálnoky  72' Report  20' Ciaran McNulty
 25' Sam Caine
 88' Conor Doyle

2015 European Football Cup

The 2015 European Football Cup featured a total of six teams, divided into two groups of three for the first round. The top two in each group advanced to the semi-finals. The winner of the tournament, runner-up and team that finished third were automatically awarded places in the 2016 World Football Cup.

Key to colours in group tables
Teams that advanced to the semi-finals
Group A
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 County of Nice 2 2 0 0 7 3 +4 6
Felvidék 2 1 0 1 4 5 −1 3
Székely Land 2 0 0 2 3 6 −3 0
Source:
Group B
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Padania 2 2 0 0 4 2 +2 6
Ellan Vannin 2 1 0 1 3 2 +1 3
Romani people 2 0 0 2 3 6 −3 0
Source:
20 June 2015 Semi-final 1 County of Nice  3–1 Ellan Vannin Stadion Oláh Gábor Út, Debrecen
15:00 CEST Delerue
Floridi
Girand 		Jones
20 June 2015 Semi-final 2 Padania  5–0 Felvidék Stadion Oláh Gábor Út, Debrecen
18:00 CEST Prandelli
Mazzotti
De Peralta
Baruwah
21 June 2015 3rd place match Ellan Vannin 1–1
(5-3 p)		 Felvidék Stadion Oláh Gábor Út, Debrecen
13:00 CEST Bass Magyar
21 June 2015 Final County of Nice  1–4  Padania Stadion Oláh Gábor Út, Debrecen
16:00 Delerue Tignonsini
De Peralta
Prandelli

Benedikt Fontana Cup

The Benedikt Fontana Cup was planned as a two-game tournament held over two days in June 2015 between Raetia and the Chagos Islands, with the winners automatically qualifying for the World Football Cup. The competition was originally planned as a three-team tournament, with Panjab and Felvidek due to take part alongside the hosts. Panjab were forced to withdraw in May 2015, and were replaced by the Chagos Islands.[11] Subsequently, Felvidek also withdrew, leaving it as a two-legged tie, with the winner (and qualification place) decided by the aggregate score. In June 2015, just prior to the event taking place, the competition was cancelled by the Raetia FA as a result of the Chagos team pulling out, and re-scheduled for August 2015.[12] The Raetia FA announced that the tournament would be played as a single game against Franconia on Sunday 6 September.[13][14]

6 September 2015 (2015-09-06) Raetia  6–0  Franconia Fussballplätze Ringstrasse, Chur
13:00 CET

References
  1. "About Us". ConIFA. Confederation of independent Football Associations. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  2. "European Football Cup 2015". ConIFA. Confederation of independent Football Associations. 27 April 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  3. "Calendar". ConIFA. Confederation of independent Football Associations. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  4. "Ellan Vannin announced ConIFA warm up plans". BBC Sport. BBC. 8 April 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  5. "Niamh Challenge Matches – Ellan Vannin vs. Alderney". Niamh's Next Step. 8 April 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-07-14. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  6. "Ellan Vannin to host tournament at end of month". Yorkshire Evening Post. 13 May 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-07-15. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  7. "Benedikt Fontana Cup". ConIFA. Confederation of Independent Football Associations. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  8. Jockel, Jens (16 May 2015). "Signing of Team Aymara – Chile-Trip of our South America Director". ConIFA. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  9. "Looking back and moving forward!=". ConIFA. Confederation of Independent Football Associations. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  10. "Ellan Vannin set for new European adventure". IOM Today. 17 December 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  11. "Chagos ersetzt Panjab". FA Raetia (in German). 22 May 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-05-29. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  12. "Mit Bedauern muss die FA Raetia mitteilen..." Facebook (in German). Raetia FA. 14 June 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  13. "Neues Datum Benedikt Fontana Cup: 6. September 2015". FA Raetia (in German). 6 July 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-07-06. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  14. https://twitter.com/ConIFAOfficial
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