2006_FIFI_Wild_Cup
FIFI Wild Cup
International football competition
The FIFI Wild Cup was an alternative to the FIFA World Cup, held from May 29 to June 3, 2006 in Hamburg, Germany, prior to the official FIFA World Cup which started one week later. It was run by the Federation of International Football Independents (FIFI).
FIFI was a body composed of countries not recognized at the time by FIFA and those whose logistics or political disputes prevented them from playing representative football.[1] The Millerntor-Stadion in Hamburg hosted all the tournament matches.[2] The tournament was sponsored by a German online gambling consortium called myBet, as well as Goool.de Sportswear GmbH, who paid a combined €750,000 to fund the tournament. The tournament had 2 mascots, Schäfer and Schmitz. Media patronage was provided by TV stations DSF and ProSieben. The tournament was organized by Essen Agencies, Carat Sponsorship GmbH, and Western Star GmbH.
According to organizer Jorg Pommeranz, FIFI had to overcome various obstacles, such as China and FIFA applying pressure to exclude Tibet, and difficulties for players representing Northern Cyprus obtaining visas to enter Germany.[3]
The tournament winners were the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Spectator attendance was reported as “relatively weak”, with an average of 400 fans per match, although this could have been affected by poor weather.[4] Consequently, a second edition of the tournament was deemed to be unlikely, although they considered a 2010 edition to be hosted by Greenland.[5]
To give the organizers credit, they tried to make it feel like a proper tournament. Flags flew above the stadium and anthems played. A skydiver was hired to fly in and deliver the match ball for the final.[4]
Minutes 1-77 of the cup final can be watched here.
