Cornwall set for maiden appearance as ConIFA 2020 draw unveiled

Cornwall are set for their maiden appearance on the world stage after the draw mas made for the ConIFA 2020 World Cup finals. The finals will be staged in Skopje, North Macedonia from May 30 to June 7.

Here is the full draw:

Group A: Parishes of Jersey, Panjab, Kurdistan and the Chagos Islands

Group B: Kárpátalja, Western Armenia, Tamil Eelam and Kabylia

Group C: Mapuche, Matabeleland, Cornwall (Kernow) and Mariya

Group D: South Ossetia, United Koreans in Japan, Cascadia and Darfur

Some of these sides are known to Cascadia, the side from the Pacific Northwest of North America, sponsored by Prost Soccer.

They played the Panjab to a 3-3 draw in the ConIFA World Cup in 2018 in an ultra competitive an even match at Fisher FC’s stadium in South London. Also in South London, Cascadia met the Chagos Islands in a friendly in Whyteleafe last year, winning 6-3.

All four sides in a tough looking Group B have ConIFA World Cup experience.

Champions Kárpátalja who knocked the Cascadians out of the 2018 World Cup and indeed went on to lift the trophy look to be the strongest side. Also in that group are Western Armenia who fell 4-1 to Cascadia in the Placement Rounds.

The fourth side is Tamil Eelam, who Cascadia famously flattened 6-0 in a game where they needed to win by six to progress to the next stage. On past form, the Tamils may be the weakest side in the group but a great deal can change in two years.

Quite conversely, Group C is full of unknowns.

Matabeleland played in the 2018 Cup in London coached by legendary Liverpool keeper Bruce Grobelaar.

They are joined by Mariya, the Australian First Nations side and like Andean side Mapuche, little is known about them. Kernow (Cornwall) are the fourth team in what appears to be the weakest group. If not, it is certainly the group least known to experienced ConIFA watchers.

Kernow joined ConIFA in 2018. Among their management team is Darren Wright who played professionally for Wrexham between 1986 and 1991. The others are Phil Lafferty, Darren Gilbert and Andrew Graham.

Their last match was a 10-3 win over the Chagos Islands in August 2019 in Bodmin.

In Group D, the biggest name is strong European champions South Ossetia. They are joined by two sides who played the 2018 tournament, the United Koreans of Japan and Cascadia. The fourth side is Darfur who Cascadia beat 8-1 in a friendly last year.

Because of irregular fixtures, it is truly hard to gauge who are the favourites for the ConIFA Cup but South Ossetia, as European Champions, must be up there, as are current world champions Kárpátalja, an ethnic Hungarian region of Ukraine, known once as Carpathia in English.

South Ossetia is a breakaway section of northern Georgia in the former USSR. The breakaway state is considered by the world community to be part of Georgia but is in fact, rather like the Crimea, under Russian influence if not occupation.

Mapuche is a side representing the native and original inhabitants of parts of Chile and Argentina including Patagonia. Returning to the ConIFA World Cup are Kabylia, an ethnic Berber province of Algeria, and part of the Tell Atlas mountain range located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.

Western Armenia is one of ConIFA’s diaspora sides representing the people of the Western part of the Armenians Highlands, nowadays part of the Turkish state.