The World Cup, Italy defending their crown from 2006. Although what about the Women’s World Cup won in 2007 with Germany beating the fast improving Brasilians. Of course we should not forget the Men’s AND Women’s under-20 and under-17 versions, held by Ghana and the Swiss for the Men, USA and North Korea for the Women. That’s the lot.
Well no actually, Brasil regained the Futsal World Cup in Rio last year, as well as this years edition of the “we can’t think of anything else to flog to TV companies so we’ll do it on the Beach" World Cup, that saw Brasil again claim a World title, this time in Dubai.
This is of course without considering the non FIFA- recognised, Deaf World Cup won by Ukraine and the USA Women’s Team. The Blind World Cup was won by the hosts Argentina in 2006. In 2010 this will take place at the Royal National College for The Blind in Hereford, this is not be confused with the Paralympic Blind Football competition ( but for which it will act as a qualifier) – current holders are Brasil.
The Homeless World Cup has had some publicity in the past and took place in Italy this year. Players must have been homeless at some time since the previous competition, (this event is annual unlike others) or be Asylum seekers without a work permit. Ukraine beat Portugal 5-4 in the 4 a side (+ 3 rolling substitutes) street soccer competition final.
You may not even know that a Youth “World Cup” has been running for over 70 years the Blue Star Tournament – named after the founding club, has been run by FIFA since 1981. The Manchester United team at the 1956 tournament included Bobby Charlton, and Germany's Helmut Haller also played in the Zurich based event that year, of course they were to meet again at Wembley in 1966. Over the years the the tournament has featured the likes of Roy Keane, Klaus Augenthaler, Mark Hughes, Markus Babbel, and Didi Hamann. The Giggs, Beckham Scholes & Neville generation of future Manchester Utd players, as well as Jay-Jay Okocha and Josep Guardiola all appeared in Zurich in the 90’s. This though of course is a club competition.
So does that mean we now have to include the god-awful World Club Championship fought out in the United Arab Emirates to our list. It follows the now familiar FIFA/EUFA protocol, a draw “arranged” so that barring an upset of cataclysmic proportions, the South American and European representatives will meet in the final.
More wholesome is the VIVA World Cup – this is a competition designed to bring together teams from indigenous ethnic groups and unrecognised territories. None of them are members of FIFA. The host’s, the Sapmi people of Sweden/Finland, stormed to victory in the women’s competition with an 11-1 thrashing of Iraqi Kurdistan, while the men’s team took third place with a 3-1 win over the same opponents. Sapmi is also called Lappland, but it is not known whether either team featured a rotund midfield general by the name of S. Claus.
The 2009 edition took place in Padania, using grounds in
Brescia, Varese and Verona. It featured Sapmi, Iraqi
Kurdistan and hosts Padania once more as well as teams
from Occitania, the coastal region of Northern France/Italy,
the French region of Provence, and the Maltese Island of Gozo. Padania won again, this time overcoming Iraqi Kurdistan in front of 3500 spectators. The Gozitans will host the next tournament at the newly re-furbished artificial turf ground of 2009-10 Champions Sannat Lions, as well as the 4,000 capacity Gozo Stadium in Xewkija. From May 31st to June 6th, teams from Padania, Kurdistan, Provence, Ocitania. Lapland, and a further two to be confirmed from the NF-Board will compete for the Nelson Mandela Trophy. The Female tournament still has to be confirmed. http://www.gozofootball.net/
VIVA’S Coming Home
My personal favourite is the FIFI Wild Cup (no that is not a typo), the Federation of International Football Independents. This is for actual nations or autonomous regions, that cannot gain FIFA recognition. First played in 2006, it featured Greenland (counted as part of Denmark by FIFA), Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Zanzibar (part of Zambia), Gibraltar ( Gibraltar FA have applied for UEFA recognition, but this is always blocked by Spain,) and a team from Tibet. The Republic of St. Pauli entered a squad, representing the St Pauli area of Hamburg, which hosted the tournament.
For the tournament to take place at all took some determined fighting from organizer Jorg Pommeranz and FIFI, against the likes of FIFA and the Chinese Government. Their embassy in Germany sent a letter to FIFI, demanding it un-invite Tibet. FIFI refused, and FIFA then declared it had the right to cancel these matches. FIFI would not recognize their authority (my heroes) and carried on. They also had to overcome visa problems for the Northern Cypriot players to St Pauli – Patron Saint of FIFI’s enter Germany.
Northern Cyprus took the title in a penalty shoot out with Zanzibar and Gibraltar beat the hosts in the 3rd place play off.
The 2010 FIFI Wild Cup is slated for Greenland, , the Nuuk Stadium in the capital will play host to as many as 12 teams with the likes of Wallonia (southern Belgium) Sardinia & Western Sahara making their debut.
So pick out your spot in the "unique" main grandstand at Nuuk and now you know you can get those flights to Godthab booked for May 2010.
Who ate all the Whales? Who ate all the Whales?
