Cornish national team?

[inflikted]

After seeing that the Yorkshire International Football Association (YIFA) has been accepted into ConIFA, a non-FIFA international football association, I was just wondering if Cornwall should consider assembling an independent FA (Kowethas an Pel·drós Kernewek maybe? I don't know much Cornish) to do the same. Cornwall has just as much of a cultural identity as Yorkshire, perhaps even more so seeing as it has its own language and is one of the 6 historical Celtic Nations (along with Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Isle of Man [who also play in ConIFA as Ellan Vannin] and Brittany). It could probably attract more attention to Cornish football as well. It seems that as long as you can get players/clubs involved and get a memorandum of understanding with the FA-affiliated association (YIFA has one with the main Yorks FA, MIFA has one with the Isle of Man FA) it's possible. So who thinks it'd be a good idea?

[Lynxman]

Now that sounds a great idea

[inflikted]

Personally I wouldn't know anything about setting it up, nor would I be able to play a part in its formation, but I just wanted to toss the idea out there in case anyone in here would actually be interested in getting the ball rolling, and perhaps speaking to those in charge of the YIFA to get advice on setting up.

[baldy]

I emailed the head of the CCFA many weeks ago. Not even the courtesy of  reply!

[inflikted]

6 minutes ago, baldy said:

I emailed the head of the CCFA many weeks ago. Not even the courtesy of  reply!

Might help to start word of an independent FA beforehand. Yorks had their social media running and gathering momentum long before they managed to get a MoU signed with the local level FA. Get some mates to start you off, get a Twitter account etc. started, start gathering support from local football fans and eventually the local FA will have to take notice. You can call it the Cornish Independent FA, the Kernow Independent FA, whatever. Important thing is that first step. and I've already started trying to talk up the idea on Twitter, ConIFA, the Ellan Vannin FA and more have already liked my proposal. So it seems they're in favour of the idea. Could even make your first games a 3 team tournament between Cornwall, Ellan Vannin and Yorkshire. Maybe ask Sealand too for the fun of it.

[inflikted]

 

Paul Watson (on the board of ConIFA, also known for his work with small nations) reckons Cornwall would easily get into ConIFA if it had a team. So someone should at least set to work developing a social media presence.

[inflikted]

1 hour ago, Keith B said:

And all this would differ from the already existing Cornwall County side how - and to what purpose ?

More regular football, playing in ConIFA international competitions against other partially or non-recognised states, some of whom (like Abkhazia and South Ossetia) field full professionals? Chance to play in tournaments like the European Championship and World Cup? Raising the profile of Cornwall and its culture? Chance to call up players through FIFA-style eligibility rules like Ellan Vannin (who call up players from League of Ireland and USL in America, and have held talks with Kieran Tierney about appearing in future)? Plus with all this talk of further devolution in the UK (Yorkshire want it and so do some in Cornwall), a national team could end up being part of that anyway in future so why wait.

[Tommy Matthews]

We can't get players to go from Penzance to Plymouth for a match because of other commitments so what chance a European match? I spoke to one lad a couple of years ago who had just got into the Penryn first team but wasn't sure if he'd be playing on the Saturday as they were in Perranporth and that was a bit far!

[inflikted]

That may be something you'd want to get advice from the Manx and the Yorkshire IFA for. They have the same problems (Isle of Man being a small island in the Irish Sea and Yorkshire being a huge county taking up most of the North of England) and seem to have workarounds sorted for it. Things like sponsorship and help from ConIFA probably go towards it. I mean if you look at some of the teams playing at the ConIFA World Cup this year you'll see that there's clearly a workaround for it. If a group of Tibetan exiles, Northern Cyprus, Matabeleland (a region of Zimbabwe) and even the remote Pacific islands of Kiribati can assemble teams for it, then I think the people of Cornwall could work things out.

[inflikted]

I know someone on Twitter last night said they were planning on getting one started but still early days.

[TheolderIgetthebetterIwas]

9 hours ago, Tommy Matthews said:

We can't get players to go from Penzance to Plymouth for a match because of other commitments so what chance a European match? I spoke to one lad a couple of years ago who had just got into the Penryn first team but wasn't sure if he'd be playing on the Saturday as they were in Perranporth and that was a bit far!

And that is why they are making the latest changes to the league structures, no-one wants to travel these days.

[Martin Eddy]

Am I right in thinking we no longer have a county men’s team because of lack of funding. Very good idea in theory but not with the attitude of today’s players.  Hard job to get them to turn up and play for their club side every week. Thought Graham Hart may have been interested on this topic

[Dave Deacon]

There’s no competition to play in!

By coincidence there is a Seniors match coming up soon against the Navy (I think)

[Tommy Matthews]

18 hours ago, Postman Pat said:

Am I right in thinking we no longer have a county men’s team because of lack of funding. Very good idea in theory but not with the attitude of today’s players.  Hard job to get them to turn up and play for their club side every week. Thought Graham Hart may have been interested on this topic

It's not the funding. When the step system came into play, teams couldn't postpone their fixtures when they had county players on duty. They were able to under the old system where two or more players picked for their county would trigger a postponement if the club wished. Clubs were therefore not happy playing their games with their best players missing. Those players were also unhappy at missing club fixtures especially if they were missing out on their weekly "expenses".

This led to counties not being able to field teams and ultimately our Cornwall team had no other counties to play. 

That's the briefest explanation I can give you.

[David Bray]

6 minutes ago, Tommy Matthews said:

It's not the funding. When the step system came into play, teams couldn't postpone their fixtures when they had county players on duty. They were able to under the old system where two or more players picked for their county would trigger a postponement if the club wished. Clubs were therefore not happy playing their games with their best players missing. Those players were also unhappy at missing club fixtures especially if they were missing out on their weekly "expenses".

This led to counties not being able to field teams and ultimately our Cornwall team had no other counties to play. 

That's the briefest explanation I can give you.

Spot on Tommy.

We seem to answer this same old question time and time again.

Another factor in the demise of the South West Counties Championship (Senior Section ) which happened some 10 years ago was the withdrawal of the Services involvement. The Army and  Royal Navy. They both opted to play 'in house' competitions along side the RAF. Also financial cutbacks within the services lead to a withdrawal from Under 18 Competitions. In the eyes of the FA the three named are treated as 'Counties'.  What Tommy also carefully explained actually left the competition with just Devon and Cornwall standing alone, all other Counties folded their Senior Section for the reason's explained. Hence the reason why both Devon and Cornwall endeavour to play an annual 'Services' fixture, mid week, so as not to infringe on club fixtures, well try not to anyway. Whether we get away with a fixture scheduled for February will depend on finding a ground with lights 'fit for purpose' at the moment i doubt that we will unless we switch to the 4G facility at HMS Drake where we have played in the past.

 

 

 

 

[Dave Deacon]

http://thebootifulgame.co.uk/2018/01/19/exclusive-interview-with-yorkshire-international-manager-ryan-farrell/