{"id":1550,"date":"2018-06-22T09:39:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-22T08:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conifa.org\/en\/?p=1550"},"modified":"2021-08-05T12:23:22","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T11:23:22","slug":"conifa-paddy-power-world-football-cup-2018-what-the-fans-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conifa.org\/en\/conifa-paddy-power-world-football-cup-2018-what-the-fans-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"CONIFA Paddy Power World Football Cup 2018: What the Fans Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Written by Pat McGuinness \u2013 Twitter:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/patsfballblog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@patsfballblog<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The CONIFA Paddy Power World Football Cup 2018 is now a happy memory \u2013 but it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the thousands of people who came to watch the tournament\u2019s 16 teams battle for the Cup over 48 matches.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_40552\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-40552\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<\/div>\n<p>People from across the globe came to 10 venues in and around London to watch the tournament: football fans \u2013 supporters of non-league clubs, and groundhoppers, were very much in evidence \u2013 as well as Hungarians living in south-east England who followed Szekely Land and Karpatalya from start to finish; plus, the politically motivated who had gone to games to lend their support to Tibet, for example; and the curious, who had come along just to see what all the fuss was about.<\/p>\n<p>Two of that number were Darren and Matthew, who had travelled down from Manchester to watch both the final and the Bronze match. Speaking during the Bronze match between Szekely Land and Padania, Darren said: \u201cI\u2019ve been following the tournament online and came down from Manchester to watch the final. I saw this on a website and I thought it would be a good opportunity to see a bit of different football. I\u2019ve been following it online, it seems really competitive and the standard of football I\u2019ve seen today has been better than I expected. I want Karpatalya to win tonight, but I think Northern Cyprus will smash it; they\u2019ve got a really good centre forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_40554\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-40554\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<\/div>\n<p>Matthew continued: \u201cWe go and watch Welsh league football and this is a far better standard than that. I\u2019ve been surprised by the standard actually, it\u2019s a really good. Northern Cyprus have been playing really well; their domestic league is quality, and I think they\u2019ll win the final.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Peter and Roger were another pair of supporters who had come along to watch the two matches at Enfield, and Peter kept his comments short and sweet: \u201cThe tournament seems to have been very well organised and the games are competitive; I\u2019ve really enjoyed it, even though this (Szekely Land v Padania) is only the second game I\u2019ve been to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger: \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful tournament; I only hope that there\u2019ll be more tournaments in England. It must be very difficult in other countries to organise. You\u2019ve got a real ethnically diverse population here, people from everywhere, so I\u2019m hoping the next tournament will be here as well. It\u2019s lovely. You\u2019ve got a team here representing Tibet playing football, that\u2019s quite incredible. But here today, you\u2019ve got Szekely Land playing Padania; that\u2019s more like football as we know it, a bit more cut-and-thrust.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been to Aveley and Fisher as well as here; the crowds have been quite good. It\u2019s in the middle of summer as well; it wouldn\u2019t be much good in December, it wouldn\u2019t quite draw the crowds. But it\u2019s been brilliant. I just wish I\u2019d gone to a few more games.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_40553\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-40553\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<\/div>\n<p>Marlow season-ticket holder Gordon, who was watching his ninth match of the tournament, said that he had seen the tournament advertised and, as a non-league football supporter, \u201cthought it would be [<em>his<\/em>] sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve thoroughly enjoyed it; I\u2019ve only been to eight games. I\u2019ve enjoyed watching the teams that haven\u2019t been competitive; they\u2019re playing for their countries, and it shows. It\u2019s been excellent. Playing on 4G pitches has helped. The two semi-finals were absolutely excellent games, and they were competitive, very competitive. I\u2019ve been very surprised by the standard as I didn\u2019t know any of the teams. I\u2019ve really enjoyed it. The size of the crowd has surprised me; I\u2019m happy that I\u2019d bought my ticket for both the third-place game and the final when I came in today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dave Barnett, who has been following non-league football for a number of years, was also attending his ninth World Football Cup fixture and, like Gordon, was pleasantly surprised by the size of the crowd at the final between Karpatalya and Northern Cyprus. \u201cI saw this tournament advertised in the\u00a0<em>Non-League Paper<\/em>. I\u2019ve been to five or six different venues, all very friendly; it\u2019s very well-organised as it seems to be a new set-up and I\u2019ve been very pleased with it. I\u2019ve been very surprised by the size of the crowd today, there\u2019s a lot of local interest [<em>thanks in part to the large Turkish ex-pat population, who lent their support to Northern Cyprus<\/em>]. I\u2019m very pleased with it, but the final\u2019s not living up to its billing; it\u2019s a typical final with too much to lose.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve also enjoyed the naivety of the tournament, which has been nice, it\u2019s been a joy to watch at times. I\u2019m not so sure about the green card, I don\u2019t think a lot of people understand what it\u2019s all about, including the players. One of the players got one this morning, didn\u2019t know what it was for and ended up getting a red card [<em>for dissent]<\/em>. But, it\u2019s all new, and it\u2019s a good start for it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was very impressed with the United Koreans in Japan; they couldn\u2019t score, but they were a very good side. The football\u2019s been of a high standard; not knowing any of the countries participating, the tournament\u2019s been of a very good standard.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_40555\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-40555\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<\/div>\n<p>Phil Bailey had clocked up 14 games at the CONIFA World Football Cup before the final kicked off and was another spectator who alluded to the comparative lack of publicity for the tournament, and, like several others, to Ellan Vannin\u2019s withdrawal from the tournament after the group stages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been really good. I\u2019ve really enjoyed the tournament, I\u2019m surprised that there have been so many people going to the games. There\u2019s been a couple of 8-0s, so I\u2019ve seen plenty of goals, so it\u2019s been good. The best game I\u2019ve been to was the first semi-final [<em>between Padania and Northern Cyprus<\/em>], it was really quite exciting. It would be nice to know where the next one is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CONIFA is still a very young organisation, having been founded only in 2013, so it is only natural that it suffers growing pains, and that it continues to do so from time to time. Many lessons will be learned from the 2018 World Football Cup. But, it is heartening to know that the feedback from the majority of spectators who attended matches was generally positive, and hopefully many of those who passed through the turnstiles at this year\u2019s World Football Cup venues will follow future tournaments, wherever they may take place.<\/p>\n<p>Pat McGuinness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by Pat McGuinness \u2013 Twitter:\u00a0@patsfballblog The CONIFA Paddy Power World Football Cup 2018 is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>CONIFA Paddy Power World 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