Kernow qualify for the World Cup

CONIFA/Alvaro Velazquez

Cornwall’s indigenous football team, Kernow FA, has qualified for the Confederation of Independent Football Associations World Cup, to be played later this year.

The CONIFA Sportsbet.io World Football Cup 2020 will be taking place between 30 May-7 June 2020 in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia.

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CONIFA is for all associations outside of FIFA, supporting football teams from nations, de-facto nations, regions, minority peoples and sports isolated territories.

Kernow FA have had to earn the right to play in the tournament. The squad is picked from the best Cornish born players available, mostly from teams in the South Western Peninsular League, including Bodmin Town, St Austell and Mousehole.

Cornish players from higher leagues or even professionals would also be eligible to join the squad, if their clubs would agree to release them for ‘international duty’. Kernow’s young goalkeeper Jordan Duffey makes the squad having just signed a professional contract with Cardiff City.

Jordan Duffey of Cardiff City FC and Kernow FA

On Saturday, after holding their AGM, CONIFA announced the 16 teams that have qualified for the tournament.

They are:

Africa
Matabeleland
Kabylia
Darfur
Western Sahara

Asia
Tamil Eelam
Panjab
United Koreans in Japan

Europe
South Ossetia
Western Armenia
Kernow
Parishes of Jersey
Karpatalya

North America
Cascadia

Oceania
Australian First Nations

South America
Mapuche

Global ticket
Chagos Islands

There is a full reserve list of teams in case any of the qualified teams can no longer attend.

Above: Kernow FA team v Barawa

Kernow FA is the brainchild of its director of football Andrew Bragg, who explains that he was chatting with his son, Josh, over dinner in 2016; Josh was playing for a club in Sweden at the time, and mentioned that one of his team-mates had played for the Sápmi side at a previous CONIFA World Football Cup.

“As I’d never heard of either”, Bragg says, “I asked him to explain… and it occurred to me that the Cornish were also a race. So, over the next few months, I started to investigate our eligibility [for CONIFA membership], and after speaking to CONIFA general secretary Sascha Duerkop, set in motion the formation of Kernow FA.”

Bragg says, “The primary reason for creating Kernow FA was to get Cornish football onto the international stage, and to make people aware what a great nation we are.”

Message from Jason Heaton, Chairman of Kernow FA, following the news that the Kernow squad will be off to Skopje :

Jason Heaton

Famous Cornish footballers are relatively few and far between, but include the likes of ex-England goalkeeper Nigel Martyn, Mike Trebilcock – whose double won the FA Cup for Everton in 1966 – and Chris Morris, who played for the Republic of Ireland at the 1988 European Championships and the 1990 World Cup.

Kernow GOAT – The Best Cornish Football Players