Internet Football Association

Last updated July 18, 2019

The IFA Logo

The Internet Football Association (also known as the IFA) is an organisation which runs football competitions for supporters' teams across the United Kingdom. Its flagship competition is the IFA League, and the highlight of the IFA calendar is WorldNET. The motto of the IFA is "Internet football is not about winning, it's about building bridges between rival groups of football supporters."

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom's 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi) were home to an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

Origins of the IFA

In the early nineties many supporters, particularly ex-pats, kept in touch with other fans via email. Those people tended to mainly be in technical or academic professions where email was widely available. The first ever internet organised football match was held in Nottingham on 30 July 1995 between Leeds Lards and Internet Hotspurs. Leeds won the match 6-3.^[1]

An expatriate is a person residing in a country other than their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either independently or sent abroad by their employers, who can be companies, universities, governments, or non-governmental organisations. Effectively migrant workers, they usually earn more than they would at home, and less than local employees. However, the term 'expatriate' is also used for retirees and others who have chosen to live outside their native country. Historically, it has also referred to exiles.

Electronic mail is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Invented by Ray Tomlinson, email first entered limited use in the 1960s and by the mid-1970s had taken the form now recognized as email. Email operates across computer networks, which today is primarily the Internet. Some early email systems required the author and the recipient to both be online at the same time, in common with instant messaging. Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need to connect only briefly, typically to a mail server or a webmail interface for as long as it takes to send or receive messages.

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, England, 128 miles (206 km) north of London, 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Birmingham and 56 miles (90 km) southeast of Manchester, in the East Midlands.

WorldNET

History

The IFA's annual tournament, WorldNET, traces its roots back to 1996. In the build up to UEFA Euro 96, there had been concerns over whether English football fans would be able to behave themselves. Dave "Voice of Football" Walmsley wanted to show that football fans could come together in the spirit of the game, play football and build bridges between their respective teams. Through the use of email discussion groups, Dave organised a sixteen-team tournament to be held on 9 June 1996 in Nottingham, and EuroNET 96 was born. From that point it grew to represent the teams of message boards and email discussion groups across the UK. Dave Walmsley stood down after EuroNET 96 and the organisation was taken on by John Boocock and Roger Goodair. In 1999 it was renamed WorldNET to better represent the world-wide interest the tournament now had.^[1]

WorldNET Today

In the time since then, WorldNET has become even bigger. 2008 saw the introduction of a Veterans' tournament. With 64 teams in the main tournament and 16 in the veterans, there were a record 80 teams competing at WorldNET 2009.

WorldNET was held at Bodington Hall, University of Leeds between 2000 and 2012.^[2] In 2013, the Veterans' tournament remained in Leeds whilst the main tournament was held at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston. WorldNET attracts teams from all over Europe and some from even further afield, with previous entrants including supporters of Inter Milan, RC Lens, St. Pauli and even an Arsenal supporters' team from Nigeria.

Bodington Hall former halls of residence

Bodington Hall was the largest hall of residence of the University of Leeds, in Leeds, England. It was opened in 1961 and closed in 2013. The site still contains the university's main playing fields. Known as Bod within the university, it was located between Lawnswood and Adel, approximately 4 miles north of the main campus. Bodington was used mainly to house first year undergraduate students. Out of term, it was used for conferences and sporting activities such as WorldNET, the Internet Football Association's annual tournament, and from 1994 to 2012 it was the venue for the International Medieval Congress (IMC).

The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884 it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine and was renamed Yorkshire College. It became part of the federal Victoria University in 1887, joining Owens College and University College Liverpool. In 1903 a royal charter was granted to the University of Leeds by King Edward VII.

The University of Central Lancashire is a public university based in the city of Preston, Lancashire, England. It has its roots in The Institution For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge founded in 1828. Subsequently, known as Harris Art College, then Preston Polytechnic, then Lancashire Polytechnic, in 1992 it was granted university status by the Privy Council. The university is the 19th largest in the UK in terms of student numbers.

The WorldNET tournament is played over a summer weekend. The tournament is preceded on the Friday by the IFA Challenge Cup Final and an England vs Scotland friendly. The tournament begins with the group stages on the Saturday. There are 4 teams in each group who play each other once. Games are 30 minutes long (15 minutes each half). All teams return on the Sunday for the knock-out stages, with the top two teams from each group competing in the main tournament (called the WorldNET Cup) to determine the overall winner. The bottom two teams from each group compete for the WorldNET Plate.^[3]

WorldNET has been supported by The Football Supporters' Federation since 2009, and they provided a free programme for all participants and spectators.^[4]

The Football Supporters' Federation (FSF) is an organisation representing football fans in England and Wales. It campaigns across a range of issues and supports fan representation on clubs' boards, lower ticket prices, and the introduction of safe standing areas at grounds in the top two tiers of English football. The organisation is free to join and acts as a singular voice for football fans.

Past Winners

Year	WorldNET Winners	WorldNET Runners Up	Plate Winners	Plate Runners Up	Veterans Winners	Veterans Runners Up
1996	Middlesbrough	QPR
1997	Bradford City	Birmingham
1998	QPR
1999	Arsenal
2000	Middlesbrough		Arsenal
2001	Middlesbrough	Dumbarton	Arsenal
2002	Charlton Athletic	Bradford City	Aberdeen	Motherwell
2003	Celtic	Inter Milan	Portsmouth	Brentford
2004	Dumbarton	Stockport	Stockport	Inter Milan
2005	Rotherham United	QPR	Scunthorpe	Inter Milan
2006	Celtic	Dumbarton	QPR	Doncaster
2007	RC Lens		Leicester	Darlington
2008	Preston North End	Watford A	QPR	Arsenal Nigeria	Arsenal Nigeria	Birmingham
2009	West Bromwich Albion	Bradford City	Welling United	York City	Bury	Leicester City
2010	Bradford City	RC Lens	QPR	Leicester City	AFC Halifax	Arsenal Nigeria
2011	RC Lens	Bradford City	Portsmouth	Darlington	Bury	AFC Halifax
2012	Crystal Palace	RC Lens	Darlington	Bradford City	AFC Halifax	Everton
2013	AFC Halifax	Crystal Palace	Manchester United	Darlington	Bradford City	AFC Halifax
2014	AFC Halifax	Preston North End	Runcorn Linnets	Port Vale

^[5]

^[6]

The IFA League

The IFA league has an unusual structure, where instead of a set fixture list with teams playing each other a set number of times, it is up to the teams themselves to organise fixtures. This means that some teams play more games than others, but each team is limited to playing a maximum of twenty games. Even when they lose, teams are rewarded for making the effort to turn up and play fixtures, with one league point being awarded for a defeat, two points for a draw and three for a win.

The ideal of the IFA is that two supporters teams will get together and play each other on a Saturday morning, before attending the match between the two teams they support in the afternoon. IFA fixtures are often arranged so as to coincide with meetings of the teams they support, however it does not always work out this way.

The main IFA league consists of around eighty teams, and is not split into separate divisions. However, there is a Scottish league. Scottish teams tend to compete in both leagues, with their fixtures counting towards both competitions. Scottish teams regularly do well in matches against their English counterparts, with Celtic having won WorldNET twice, and Hibs having won the IFA Cup three times, and in 2011 Motherwell became the first Scottish team ever to win the IFA league.^[7]

Every year, each team is invited to vote for the Team of the Year award. This is for the team that has played the game in the best spirit, closest to the ethos of the IFA.

Below is a table of past winners of the IFA league, along with the Scottish League Champions and the Team of the Year.

Year	IFA League Champions	Scottish League Champions	Team of the Year
1998	QPR		Watford
1999	QPR		Not awarded
2000	Arsenal		Huddersfield Town
2001	QPR		Brentford
2002	QPR	Hibs	Hull City
2003	Millwall	Hearts	Grimsby Town
2004	Fulham	Ayr United	Tranmere Rovers
2005	Millwall	Aberdeen	Watford
2006	Rotherham United	Hearts	Preston North End
2007	Preston North End	Falkirk	Preston North End
2008	Rochdale	Stirling Albion	Watford
2009	Preston North End	Ayr United	West Ham United
2010	Preston North End	Ayr United	Kidderminster Harriers
2011	Motherwell	Motherwell	Ipswich Town
2012	Preston North End	Ayr United	Watford
2013	Livingston GS	Livingston GS	AFC Chorley
2014	Preston North End	Livingston GS	West Ham United

^[7]

The IFA Challenge Cup

Every year, the IFA Challenge Cup is contested by IFA member teams from across the UK alongside regular IFA League games. The final of this competition is played on the Friday evening of WorldNET. Below is a list of past winners of this competition.

Year	Winners	Runners Up
2000	Celtic
2001	Hibs
2002	QPR	Watford
2003	Hibs	Charlton Athletic
2004	Ayr United	Millwall
2005	Fulham	Ayr United
2006	Preston North End	Nottingham Forest
2007	Hibs	Bury
2008	Bury A	Rochdale
2009	Preston North End	West Bromwich Albion
2010	Preston North End	West Bromwich Albion
2011	Preston North End	Kidderminster
2012	Kidderminster	Ayr United
2013	Preston North End	Hearts
2014	Livingston GS	Preston North End

^[8]

Related Research Articles

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References

External links

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[History_of_the_IFA-1] 1 2 "History of the IFA".

[Bod-2] IFA WorldNET

[WorldNET_rules-3] "WorldNET rules".

[FSF-4] "FSF Support WorldNET 09".

[Worldnet_Roll_of_Honour-5] "Worldnet Roll of Honour".

[Big_Tam_Vets_Roll_of_Honour-6] "Big Tam Vets Roll of Honour".

[IFA_Roll_of_Honour-7] 1 2 "IFA Roll of Honour".

[IFA_Challenge_Cup_Roll_of_Honour-8] "IFA Challenge Cup Roll of Honour".