Separatist Soccer: South Ossetia Trounces Abkhazia in Alternative World Cup
In a win likely to inspire some celebratory gunfire this evening, South Ossetia on June 4 narrowly defeated its separatist sibling Abkhazia in a World Cup of soccer, and now will head to the semi-finals. No, not in that World Cup. In a championship in Sweden for breakaway territories, stateless peoples, micro-nations, and the like.
The 12-team soccer tournament, running until June 8 in Östersund, Sweden, aims to let "sportingly isolated" groups -- those shunned by the FIFA World Cup, in other words -- "share the joy of playing international football," says the organizer, the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (ConiFA).
Perhaps not surprisingly, the main sponsor of the début ConiFA World Cup is a gambling company, NordicBet.
But don't scoff just yet. After all, as at any FIFA World Cup, there is a catchy theme song.
For the most part, the Caucasus breakaways have been doing well in the tournament. The South Ossetian team earlier destroyed Darfur United with a jaw-dropping 19 to 0 score, while the Abkhaz beat Lapland 2 to 1, and held even against Occitania, a fuzzy territorial concept that embraces parts of Italy and France.
Breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh, however, has been less successful, losing to teams from the Isle of Man and the long-dissolved Countea de Nissa.
South Ossetia's June-4 victory nearly didn't happen, however. It came via two penalty shots after a 0-0 finish against the Abkhaz in the championship's quarter-finals. Now, South Ossetia advances to the semi-finals.
But, you may ask, will anyone come to watch them play? A video posted on the ConiFA Facebook page showed an empty stadium. Yet the South Ossetian team gave no sign of that dampening their own "joy" from "playing international football." They were partying on.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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