Ahead of the football World Cup, 16 teams unrecognised by FIFA are participating in their own version

The FIFA World Cup kicks off in Russia later this month on June 14, 2018. Two weeks before the FIFA World Cup another football World Cup is being kicked off in London – the CONIFA World Cup. So, are Brazil, Germany, England, etc. going to play two World Cups this year? No.

The CONIFA World Cup will be played between 16 teams from unrecognised nations, independence-seeking regions, minority communities and various Diasporas. These teams together represent around 334 million people. None of the teams participating in the Rebel World Cup is recognised by the governing body of football – FIFA. Hence, they cannot play against the world’s leading footballing nations.

CONIFA or Confederation of Independent Football Associations have all such teams as its members. It organises a CONIFA World Football Cup which is played at the non-league stadiums across London and gathers support and volunteers from non-league clubs.

The participating teams include:

1. Northern Cyprus, from the Turkish-controlled third of the island
2. Tibet, the region governed by China but claimed as independent by its government in exile
3. Padania, a region of northern Italy that has been the subject of independence campaigns
4. Cascadia, a region that overlaps the US-Canadian border on the west coast
5. Abkhazia, a disputed territory in Georgia (the current CONIFA champions)
6. Ellan Vannin, the Manx name for the Isle of Man
7. United Koreans of Japan, with players who are descendants of Koreans who migrated to Japan before Korea split into North and South
8. Panjab, a UK-based team of Punjabi descent
9. Tamil Eelam, a Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora community in Canada
10. Western Armenia, representing the Armenian indigenous people primarily from the region of Western Armenia
11. Barawa, a Somali diaspora in England
12. Matabeleland, the western part of Zimbabwe
13. Kabylia, Kabylie people living in northern Algeria
14. Székely Land, representing the Székelys (ethnic Hungarians) of Székely Land, Romania
15. Tuvalu, the international football team of Tuvalu
16. Kárpátalja, representing the Hungarian minority in Carpathian Ruthenia (Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine)