Murmurs of World Cup boycotts have gathered volume in recent weeks as fans have increasingly expressed concern about their safety in Russia come June - then, of course, there are the excessive working hours reportedly being experienced by site labourers in Qatar ahead of the 2022 edition in under four years’ time.
FIFA has long been linked with corruption; the ousting of former president Sepp Blatter back in 2015 gave supporters of the beautiful game hope that a new dawn was coming, but controversy is never far away – and the influence of money has led many to the conclusion that football has lost its innocence and purity across the board.
The increasingly commercialised nature of the game has quite simply turned a lot of people off.
For the football purists, however, CONIFA – the organisation that gives minnow nations cast aside by FIFA the chance to represent themselves on a global stage – should be looked to as an alternative option with its World Football Cup. It goes beyond technology, side-line pundits and slow-motion replays, to a side of the game we don’t see enough of.
Thanks to its broad reach which goes in search of hidden football gems, it shines a light on parts of the football community too many people know nothing about – like Kabylia, a region in northern Algeria that has had to fight oppression just to earn the right to represent their people in a football context.
“The Kabylia team had to play games in secret to avoid the Algerian police,” CONIFA director Paul Watson tells TheSportsman.
“Their president was arrested and held without charge for five days. Their team and management are having to hide from the secret police – all for playing the game they love,” Watson adds.
It might seem almost unfathomable that a team in this day and age would have to literally hide their playing activity from the authorities, but Kabylia are living proof of that.
“I hope London 2018 showcases the amazing cultures and identities that have been denied a voice through football,” says Watson.
It is the tenacity and hope in the face of persecution, however, that really stands out – and Kabylia are not the only team battling to overcome obstacles set to feature in the English capital come the end of May.
Tuvalu will travel a whopping distance of some 15,000 kilometres just to attend CONIFA’s showpiece event.
Far from private jets, pampered footballers or a platform that has distanced itself from the man on the street, the CONIFA World Football Cup will also see teams like Matabeleland, managed by Englishman Justin Walley, raise funds to travel all the way to London to prove that the beautiful game is worth more than commercialised nonsense – it’s about giving players and fans an escape from life’s stresses and strains.
The Matabeleland football team, too, were set up to give a brutally marginalised region in Zimbabwe the chance to be represented on a global stage.
Having travelled on cramped buses 20 hours to attend qualifying matches, and improvised on their preparations by using bottle-caps and cardboard to realise tactical theories, they have given their all to be one of the 16 finalists at this summer’s tournament, even managing to sign Liverpool legend Bruce Grobbelaar as the team’s goalkeeping coach and ambassador.
As a result, Walley’s excitement is palpable.
“CONIFA’s World Cup is going to be a festival of football...a throwback to simpler times,” Walleys says.
“I think fans will turn up from hundreds of different football clubs, share a drink together before the game, enjoy the banter, witness clashes of styles of play that you could rarely, if ever, see and mix with the players. All in all, I think it will be a very positive and refreshingly down-to-earth thing to experience.”
FIFA’s World Cup might attract the large crowds and the household names, but it’s not what it once was.
CONIFA’s alternative version should be backed by the true football fans who want to water the seeds of raw, earthy football – the terrace tourists, the meat-pie Monday night spectators and the ones who recognise pure football, and all that comes with it.
