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2016 ConIFA World Football Cup qualification

Tournament details
Dates	30 May 2015 – 6 September 2015
Teams	10 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	56 (3.73 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Franck Delerue (5 goals)
← N/A 2018 →

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.

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.

Alderney  v Felvidék

30 May 2015 (2015-05-30) Match 1	Alderney	1–2	Felvidék	The Bowl, Douglas
11:30 BST	Josh Concanen 60'		Zoltan Novatar 40' Attilia Dalonky 61'

Ellan Vannin v Panjab

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)

Felvidék v Ellan Vannin

31 May 2015 (2015-05-31) Final	Felvidék	1–3	Ellan Vannin	The Bowl, Douglas
17:30 BST	Attila Dálnoky 72'	Report	Ciaran McNulty 20' Sam Caine 25' Conor Doyle 88'

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.

Group A Team v t e 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: [ citation needed]

Group B Team v t e 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: [ citation needed]

County of Nice  v Ellan Vannin

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

Padania  v Felvidék

20 June 2015 Semi-final 2	Padania	5–0	Felvidék	Stadion Oláh Gábor Út, Debrecen
18:00 CEST	Prandelli Mazzotti De Peralta Baruwah

Ellan Vannin v Felvidék

21 June 2015 3rd place match	Ellan Vannin	1–1 (5–3 p)	Felvidék	Stadion Oláh Gábor Út, Debrecen
13:00 CEST	Bass		Magyar

County of Nice  v   Padania

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 rescheduled 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]}

Raetia  v   Franconia

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

References