AN IDENTITY REINFORCED BY SPORT

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CONIFA's battle for stateless teams

Image credit: Beslan Lagulaa/CONIFA

CONIFA’s battle for stateless teams

Slideshow by Lucie Jung

“ […] more and more minorities, isolated regions, autonomous regions and countries with limited or no recognition started to get active in the beautiful game “ explains CONIFA’s general secretary, Sascha Düerkop.

After having for project to own one kit of each of the 209 FIFA member nations, Düerkop started to discover jerseys he never saw before. Being passionate of football, he was surprised to discover shirts of teams he didn’t know.

Therefore, after leading investigations to discover who they are, he began to find out about teams who aren’t part of the FIFA. That’s how Düerkop finally became the general secretary of the CONIFA, the Confederation of Independent Football Associations.

When the VIVA World Cups collapsed in January 2013, all the stateless teams outside FIFA were left without anything. At this point, Per-Anders Blind and Sascha Düerkop were asked to create a new and stable organization to welcome those teams and that’s how CONIFA born.

Established in 2013, the association is only composed of football teams who are not part of FIFA. In a few words, the CONIFA is made up of teams that do not have a nation such as unrecognized peoples, minorities or even micronations.

As the first tournament was getting ready in 2014, the federation had troubles finding 12 teams to play in the World Football Cup. Hosted by the Sami and won by the County of Nice, the tournament of 2014 finally kicked off with precisely 12 teams and no more. This year, the Abkhazia people - or the hosts themselves of the 2016 CONIFA World Cup - won the tournament.

Today, the federation is growing more and more. Stateless teams are contacting the CONIFA to be part of the movement. According to Düerkop, “the demand is growing every year” and the foundation is now counting 37 members. He explains:

“This again led to the fact that many of our members start to understand

that they need to work all over the year to get a chance to qualify for future tournaments in time. “

For the second edition of the tournament, 28 members of the CONIFA among 37 wanted to join the competition. This means that in the space of two years, the interest in the CONIFA World Cup increased by around 233% and minorities are more and more using a sport such as football as a mean of respect.

The Sápmi team were part of those 28 teams wanting to play in the tournament. Holder of the 10th place in the CONIFA World Football Cup 2014, they were selected for the competition in 2016 and succeed to reach the 6th place.

The 12 teams who were selected to play the CONIFA’s World Football Cup 2016 are the following ones:

SASCHA DÜERKOP

CONIFA's general secretary

Co-Founder of CONIFA, football shirt collector, mathematician and economist, scientist.

FA Sápmi coat of arms

Abkhazia
Chagos Islands
Kurdistan
Northern Cyprus
Padania
Panjab
Raetia
Sápmi
Somaliland
Székely Land
United Koreans in Japan
Western Armenia

FA Sapmi playing against the United Koreans in Japan team during the CONIFA World Football Cup 2016. Image credit: Beslan Lagulaa/CONIFA

CONIFA Members

Interactive Map by Lucie Jung

Even though the Sámi Football Association, founded in 2003, participated in three VIVA World Cups and won their first in 2006, the team had to be replaced after that the VIVA World Cup collapsed. In March 2014, the FA Sápmi is born to succeed the old team and to play in the CONIFA World Football Cup.

"Our aim is to show that football can be a tool to bring our members to the global stage. We all have the same right to exist."

- Per-Anders Blind, president of the CONIFA

Infographic by Lucie Jung

The Sami people, such as most of the teams participating in this tournament, are joining the confederation to find a home by joining the CONIFA, as well as the possibility to play for a people rather than a country.

Started on the 28.05.2016, the 2016 tournament were hosted by Abkhazia team. The opening started at 7 PM in the stadium Dinamo in Sukhum, capital of Abkhazia. All teams were gathered to join the event and give hope to their supporters. The first game was played the day after, on Sunday 29.05.2016 and the seven days later, the final game were already played, on the 05.06.2016.

During the tournament, all supporters were ready to cheer their team and the participants, to support their people by playing in the ‘beautiful game’. And, although the 12 teams participating to this event are small and not part of the FIFA, they managed to stir up their fans and make them dream.

On the first day of the CONIFA World Football Cup 2016, four games were played. The Sami were playing one of those four matches in Gagra. They finally showed their performance on day 1 by beating Somaliland with 5-0 score. On day 2, the Sami lose 0-1, dominated by the Panjab team.

Video made by Lucie Jung. Image credit: Beslan Lagulaa/CONIFA

PER-ANDERS BLIND

President of the CONIFA

Part of the Sami people himself, president of the CONIFA, Per-Anders Blind, explained in an interview for Al Jazzera Magazine from the 6th of June:

“My father is a reindeer herder in the Swedish and Norwegian mountains. I was born and raised as part of a group of forgotten people, the Sami, and endured discrimination because of that.

'Our aim is to show that football can be a tool to bring our members to the global stage. We all have the same right to exist. […] Perhaps because of this, I have sacrificed my own money and relationships to ensure that anyone can take part in an international tournament."

Blind declared: "FIFA and we serve different purposes: it's just not the same representing your ethnicity and representing your country."

While speaking with me, Düerkop stated: " Players of partly or not recognised de-facto states, like Abkhazia, Northern Cyprus, etc., do play football outside of the "FIFA system" and have no chance to ever promote to it, no matter how good they are. Minorities are often overseen and discriminated against by the national Football Association responsible for them."

He added: "Our strong believe is that every single human being should always have the chance to achieve everything in life and this surely includes sport."

Explaining that this is totally normal for him to consider the smallest teams, he hopes that "one day we are finally all equal and we hope that football can be a role model to achieve global equality."

The CONIFA’s first aim is to give weight to different minorities and support ethnicity conservation by respecting those people and understanding their fight for their rights.

CONIFA World Football Cup 2016. Image credit: Beslan Lagulaa/CONIFA