CONIFA: 2020 World Cup postponed amid COVID-19 Outbreak
The Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA) announced that the 2020 World Cup tournament in North Macedonia would be postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This decision was based on the organisation’s priority of protecting the “health and wellbeing” of its members and teams, as well as the volunteers that would help out during the event. Founded in 2013, the CONIFA seeks to provide a platform for international football tournaments among all states, minorities, regions, and stateless people that are not represented in the FIFA. The World Cup is held every two years: Abkhazia hosted the event in 2016 and Barawa, London, provided the location for the 2018 cup. This years’ CONIFA World Cup expected 16 teams including Kurdistan, Kabylia and the Mapuche. A new date has not been announced yet.
Below is the full statement from 23 March 2020
“CONIFA has today announced that the CONIFA Sportsbet.io World Football Cup 2020 will not be taking place in North Macedonia from 30 May – 7 June 2020. This is due to the COVID-19 emergency being seen across the world.
The health and wellbeing of all CONIFA members, teams, volunteers and supporters is the number one priority for the organisation. There was also a strong desire to avoid putting pressure on the North Macedonia public services, who would have to be in attendance at matches during this crisis.
The decision was made by the CONIFA Executive Committee on Sunday evening, after a binding vote taken by the committee.
CONIFA Global President, Per-Anders Blind, said: "We are all very sorry to have let everyone know that the CONIFA Sportsbet.io World Football Cup 2020 is not taking place in May-June 2020. But our priority right now is looking after the health and wellbeing of all our members, teams and volunteers. The COVID-19 outbreak has meant that teams cannot train, the organising committee has been unable to travel to North Macedonia to continue with preparations, and travel bans across the world make it uncertain that our teams would be able to reach the tournament."
"We will be discussing and releasing further information about the World Football Cup as soon as we can."
"CONIFA would like to thank our partners, Sportsbet.io, for their support in making this decision, and also thank all those who had offered to work with CONIFA in North Macedonia this summer. We hope to see you all at the World Football Cup soon.”
