Yorkshire to hear if it can be in ‘World Cup’

YORKSHIRE’S ‘NATIONAL’ football team will find out this weekend if it will be eligible to play in ‘World Cup’ and ‘European Championship’ tournaments.

The Hemsworth-based team will be told on Sunday if its application to join CONIFA has been successful.

CONIFA (Confederation of Independent Football Associations) is for regions and states and is not recognised by FIFA, the sport’s international governing body.

Around 40 players have been handpicked to try out for the Yorkshire team this Sunday, which already has its first ever game lined up on January 28, against the Isle of Man.

Creator and chairman of YIFA (Yorkshire International Federation Association), Phil Hegarty said: “It’s a big month for us, but we’ve not had time to think about it, it’s just been go, go, go at the moment.

“We are quietly confident of getting into CONIFA, there’s been a lot of support from them behind the scenes.”

Mr Hegarty said the idea for a Yorkshire team became a possibility after reading articles about CONIFA, whose headquarters are in Sweden. And since the formation of YIFA last year, interest in the team has soared. Mr Hegarty said: “I’m surprised at the speed of how much the interest has increased, we know how powerful the Yorkshire brand is and we know can do a lot with it.

“We’ve gone from scratching around to get three or four people interested to getting 75,000 hits on Twitter, it’s incredible.”

Once the squad is chosen after this Sunday’s trials, the team will be based at Hemsworth Miners Welfare FC’s ground, Yorkshire NuBuilds Stadium.