2018 ConIFA World Football Cup
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country |
 England
|
| Dates | 31 May - 10 June |
| Teams | 16 |
| Venue(s) | (in 1 host city) |
The 2018 ConIFA World Football Cup was the third 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 is being hosted by Barawa Football Association, with all games held in London.
In June 2017, at the ConIFA meeting held during the 2017 ConIFA European Football Cup, it was announced that the Barawa Football Association had been selected to act as the host for the 2018 World Football Cup. However, under ConIFA's criteria, the "host" is the ConIFA member that heads the organising committee for the tournament, which does not necessarily mean that it needs to be played in the host's territory.Barawa is located in Somalia, but the Barawa FA represents members of the Somali diaspora in England.
The process of qualification for the World Football Cup was originally laid out in a set of criteria published by ConIFA at its 2017 annual general meeting, which goes into the various ways by which teams can qualify. This was subsequently revised by ConIFA in June 2017.
By the criteria set out, the qualification process began in January 2016, when Western Armenia played its first official game against the reserve team of the French club Olympique de Marseille. The first team to qualify automatically was Tamil Eelam, by winning the single match ConIFA Challenger Cup against the Romani people in March 2016. Following this, two further, multi-team competitions were awarded qualification status by ConIFA, the Hungary Heritage Cup, played between four ConIFA members representing the Hungarian diaspora, and the World Unity Cup, which was a tournament containing teams representing a number of displaced peoples. The winners of both of these tournaments were guaranteed qualification for the World Football Cup.
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