CONIFA has announced that the CONIFA Sportsbet.io World Football Cup 2020 will not be taking place in North Macedonia from 30 May – 7 June 2020. This is due to the COVID-19 emergency being seen across the world.

The decision was made by the CONIFA Executive Committee on Sunday evening, after a binding vote taken by the committee.

Parishes of Jersey had qualified for the tournament and were seeded fourth in a strong group including Kurdistan, Panjab and Chagos Islands, when the draw was made in January this year in Jersey at the Conifa Annual General Meeting, which Parishes of Jersey hosted.

Commenting on the decision, President of Parishes of Jersey, James Blower, said: “This is entirely the right decision by the Conifa Executive Committee.  We are living in unprecedented times and the health and welfare of players, management and officials must come before football at this point.

We hope that, in due course, the World Football Cup can be rearranged and that, with the support of our partners IQ-EQ, we will be able to take our place at some point in the future.

Naturally, we are devastated that our hard work in preparing for our participation is lost but we have worked tirelessly to protect our financial position and recover the vast majority of costs.

In the meantime, I urge everyone in the Conifa football community to follow the advice from the authorities so that we can collectively fight and win the battle against Covid-19.  Stay safe everyone.”