Confederation of Independent Football Associations

Confederation of Independent Football Associations

Formation	15 August 2013;11 years ago (15 August 2013)
Type	Sports governing body
Headquarters	Luleå, Norrbotten, Sweden
Membership	41 member associations
Official languages	English is the official language for minutes, correspondence, and announcements. French, German, Italian, and Spanish are additional languages [1]
President	Per-Anders Blind
Website	CONIFA.org

The Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA) is the international governing body for association football teams that are not affiliated with FIFA.

Competitions

Further information: List of association football competitions

Sapmi 2014

Székely Land 2015

Abkhazia 2016

Northern Cyprus 2017

Barawa 2018

North Macedonia 2020 ( cancelled )

Nice 2021 ( cancelled )

Székely Land 2021 ( cancelled )

Lisbon 2023

Iraq 2024 ( cancelled )

class=notpageimage|

Map of CONIFA tournaments

Men's World Football Cup
Women's World Football Cup
Asian Football Cup
European Football Cup

Men's competitions

• CONIFA Men's World Football Cup
• CONIFA African Football Cup
• CONIFA Asian Football Cup
• CONIFA European Football Cup
• CONIFA No Limits European Championship
• CONIFA North American Football Cup
• CONIFA Oceanian Football Cup
• CONIFA South American Football Cup

National league sanctioned by CONIFA

• Liga de Balompié Mexicano ^[2]

Women's competition

• CONIFA Women's World Football Cup
• CONIFA Women's Asian Football Cup

Futsal competition

• CONIFA No Limits Mediterranean Futsal Cup

Current title holders

See also: Portal:Current events/Sports, 2025 in association football, and 2025 in sports

For events postponed or cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, see Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports.

Competition	Year	Champions	Title	Runners-up	Next edition [3]
World Championships
CONIFA Men's World Football Cup	2018 (final)	Kárpátalja	1st	Northern Cyprus	TBC 2026
CONIFA Women's World Football Cup	2024 (final)	Sápmi	2nd	Tamil Eelam	TBD
Continental Championships
CONIFA African Football Cup	2022	Biafra	1st	Matabeleland	TBD
CONIFA Asian Football Cup	2023 [4]	Tamil Eelam	1st	Hmong FF	July 2025
CONIFA European Football Cup	2019 (final)	South Ossetia	1st	Western Armenia	TBD
CONIFA North American Football Cup					TBD
CONIFA Oceanian Football Cup					TBD
CONIFA South American Football Cup	2022	Maule Sur	1st	Mapuche	TBD
Futsal Championship
CONIFA No Limits Mediterranean Futsal Cup	2021 (final)	County of Nice	Unknown	Sardinia	TBD

Women's football

All members of CONIFA are encouraged to invest in women's football in their communities, and to create female national selections to play and compete against other CONIFA members.

CONIFA's first ever official women's football match took place on 10 November 2018 in Northern Cyprus, with Sápmi ladies beating their Northern Cyprus hosts 4–0 in the Women's Friendship Cup. ^[5] CONIFA announced their first Women's World Football Cup on 31 January 2021, to be hosted by Székely Land between 23 and 30 June 2021 and involve 6 teams. ^[6]

Members

Types of members

CONIFA expressly uses the term "members" rather than "countries" or "states". A football association may be eligible to apply for membership of CONIFA if it, or the entity (ethnic or linguistic minority, indigenous group, cultural organization, territory) it represents, is not a member of FIFA and satisfies one or more of the following criteria:

• The football association is a member of one of the six continental confederations of FIFA, which are: AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC, UEFA.
• The entity represented by the football association is a member of the International Olympic Committee.
• The entity represented by the football association is a member of one of the member federations of Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF).
• The entity represented by the football association is in possession of an ISO 3166-1 country code.
• The entity represented by the football association is a de facto independent territory. A territory is considered de facto independent if it meets all of the following criteria: (a) a well-defined territory; (b) a permanent population; (c) an autonomous government, and (d) diplomatic recognition by at least one of the member states of the United Nations.
• The entity represented by the football association is included on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories.
• The entity represented by the football association is included in the directory of countries and territories of the Travelers' Century Club.
• The entity represented by the football association is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and/or the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN).
• The entity represented by the football association is a minority included in the World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, maintained and published by Minority Rights Group International.
• The entity represented by the football association is a linguistic minority, the language of which is included on the list of ISO 639-2 codes.

List of members

Current members

As of March2025: ^[7]

Africa (4)   Biafra [8] Kabylie Katanga Yoruba

Asia (8)   East Turkestan Hmong FF Kashmir   Kurdistan Region Pakistan All-Stars [9]   Panjab   Tamil Eelam   Tibet

Europe (18)   Abkhazia   Artsakh Canton Ticino   Chameria   Cornwall   Ellan Vannin   Gozo   Kárpátalja   Northern Cyprus   Occitania   Padania   Raetia   Sápmi   Sardinia   South Ossetia   Székely Land   Two Sicilies   Western Armenia

North America (5) ANBM Cascadia Kiskeya Indigenous Sport Council of Alberta Kuskatan [10]

Oceania (2) Hawaiʻi   West Papua

South America (6) Armenian Argentine Community [11] Aymara [12] Guna People Mapuche Maule Sur São Paulo FAD

Former members

Africa (9)   Barawa Barotseland Basotho   Chagos Islands   Darfur   Matabeleland   Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic   Somaliland   Zanzibar

Asia (6)   Arameans Suryoye Karen Lezghian   Rohingya Ryūkyū   United Koreans in Japan

Europe (12)   County of Nice   Donetsk People's Republic   Felvidék   Franconia   Luhansk People's Republic   Monaco   Occitania   Provence   Romani people   Sicily   Transnistria   Yorkshire

North America (1)   Quebec

Oceania (4)   Kiribati Mariya Rapa Nui   Tuvalu

South America (0)

Leadership

President

President of CONIFA

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
1	Per-Anders Blind	Sweden	7 June 2013	Incumbent

Vice-Presidents

Vice-Presidents of CONIFA

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
1	Malcolm Blackburn	Isle of Man	2014	2016
2	Kristof Wenczel	Hungary	2015	Incumbent
3	Dimitri Pagave	Abkhazia	2016	Incumbent

General Secretaries

General Secretaries of CONIFA

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
1	Sascha Düerkop	Germany	7 June 2013	30 April 2020
2	Jason Heaton	England	30 April 2020	2 August 2021
3	Piotr Podlewski	Poland	2 August 2021	7 August 2022
4	Jeroen Zandberg	Netherlands	7 August 2022	Incumbent

African Presidents

African Presidents of CONIFA

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
1	Masoud Attai	Zanzibar	7 June 2013	2017
2	Justin Walley	England	2017	2020
3	Christian Lubasi Luzongo Kalalaluka	Zambia	2020	2022
4	Ngala Maimo Wajiri	Cameroon	2022	Incumbent

Asian Presidents

Asian Presidents of CONIFA

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
1	Tariq Abdulrahman	Iraq	7 June 2013	2017
2	Jens Jockel	Germany	2017	2020
3	Motoko Jitsukawa	Japan	2020	2022
4	Ruby-Ann Kagaoan	Philippines	2022	Incumbent

European President

European President of CONIFA

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
1	Alberto Rischio	Italy	7 June 2013	Incumbent

Latin American Presidents

Latin American Presidents of CONIFA

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
1	Jens Jockel	Germany	2013	2017
2	Zam Gutierrez	Mexico	2017	2019
3	Diego Bartolotta	Mexico	2019	Incumbent

Northern America and the Caribbean Presidents

Northern America and the Caribbean Presidents of CONIFA

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
1	Mark Dieler	Germany	2013	2017
2	Noah Wheelock	Canada	2017	2020
3	Aaron Johnsen	United States	2020	Incumbent

Oceanian Presidents

Oceanian Presidents of CONIFA

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
1	Charles Reklai Mitchell	Palau	2014	2017
2	Ben Schultz	Australia	2017	Incumbent

Directors of Women’s Football

Directors of Women's Football

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
–	Cassie Childers	United States	6 September 2017	2019
1	Kelly Lindsey	United States	February 2019	28 February 2020
2	Håkan Kuorak	Sweden	28 February 2020	???
3	Norma Aguilera	Mexico	???	Incumbent

Director of Youth Football

Director of Youth Football

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
–	Olufemi Emmanuel Olugbodi	Nigeria	???	Incumber See also New Football Federations-Board Non-FIFA international football World Unity Football Alliance – several CONIFA members also hold membership of WUFA References "CONIFA Constitution" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 August 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019. "CONIFA Sanctions Liga de Balompié Mexicano, its First-Ever Professional League". CONIFA. Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020. "Calendar". www.conifa.org. Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA). Archived from the original on 10 June 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2022. https://www.conifa.org/en/event/conifa-asia-cup-2023/ "Sápmi Take Historic Win in First Women's Match". CONIFA. Archived from the original on 2018-11-18. Retrieved 2018-11-25. "CONIFA Announces First-Ever Women's World Football Cup". CONIFA. Archived from the original on 2021-01-31. Retrieved 2021-02-04. "Members". www.conifa.org. Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA). Archived from the original on 17 December 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2023. "Biafra De Facto Customary Government to participate in maiden CONIFA African Tournament". standardobservers.com. Archived from the original on 2022-12-24. Retrieved 2022-12-24. "Pakistan Football Association joins CONIFA" . Retrieved 2023-07-01. "Kuskatan joins CONIFA, reminds us of Latin American potential". kickingtheglobe.substack.com. Archived from the original on 2022-12-23. Retrieved 2022-12-23. "Profile". Archived from the original on 2022-12-24. Retrieved 2022-12-24. "CONIFA – The Guerrilla Alternative". hamptonthink.org. Archived from the original on 2023-06-30. Retrieved 2022-12-24. External links Official website