Crimea national football team is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

national team representing the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

peninsula in international and local friendly matches. The team is controlled by the Crimean Football Union. Crimea is not a member of

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

nor of

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

, but is a member of the unofficial organization

ConIFA The Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA) is the international governing body for association football teams that are not affiliated with FIFA. Competitions Women's football All members of CONIFA are encouraged to inv ...

History

The first known performances of the Crimean national team date back to September 1923, when the peninsula national team took part in the First All-Ukrainian Spartakiad in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Yekaterinoslav Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

2–1, in the next game (the finals of their group or 1/4 finals of the tournament) lost to the team

Druzhkivka Druzhkivka ( uk, Дружківка, ; russian: Дружковка, Druzhkovka) is a City of regional significance (Ukraine), city of oblast significance in Donetsk Oblast (oblast, province) of Ukraine. Population: ; 64,557 (2001). The area of the ...

0–2. The details of the matches and the composition of the Crimean national team did not survive. There is no information about the existence of the national team in the next 60 years. In 1986, in preparation for

FIFA World Cup 1986 The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

USSR national team held a control game with the Crimea national team composed of Simferopol football players " Tavria, Kerch "

Ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

" and Sevastopol "

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

." The match ended with the score 3–2 in favour of the USSR national team. In 2006, Crimean Tatars national football team was created from Crimean Tatars living on the peninsula and beyond, to participate in the tournament

ELF Cup The ELF Cup (''Equality, Liberty, Fraternity'') was an international football tournament organised by the Cyprus Turkish Football Federation (KTFF), a member of the NF-Board. It was played only once in 2006. Among the participants were NF-Board ...

, which immediately reached the final of the cup and took second place, subsequently the team played in a number of tournaments for teams not included in FIFA (group stage Europeada-2016). The national team representing the current

Republic of Crimea The Republic of Crimea, translit. ''Respublika Krym'' ; uk, Республіка Крим, translit. ''Respublika Krym'' ; crh, , is an unrecognized federal subject (republic) of Russia, located in the Crimean Peninsula. Its territory cor ...

for the first time can be said in light of the fact that on 4 December 2014, at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee, it was decided to ban Crimean clubs from taking part in competitions organised on 1 January 2015 by

Russian Football Union The Russian Football Union (russian: Российский Футбольный Союз, ''Rossiyskiy Futbolnyy Soyuz'' or RFS) is the official governing body of association football in the Russian Federation. With headquarters in Moscow, it org ...

. In response to this decision, fans of the Sevastopol club SKChF made with an initiative to hold an action aimed at supporting Ku Sevastopol and Crimean football. On 14 December 2014, within the framework of this action, the “Friendship Match” was organised, in which the team of the Republic of Crimea opposed the team of the city of Sevastopol. The main time of the game ended with a score of 2–2. In the penalty shootout with a score of 4–3, the team of Sevastopol won. The football team of the Republic of Crimea and the city of federal significance

Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

was created on 18 November 2016 at a meeting of the Presidium of the Crimean Football Union. Also, as part of the meeting, a decision was made on the coaching staff of the team, the former coach of Tavria football clubs and

Valery Petrov was appointed as the head coach, and the former Donetsk player Shakhtar, Metalurh, as well as

Kryvbas :''Kryvbas'' ''may also refer to the FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih, the football team in Kryvyi Rih. See also Kryvbas (disambiguation)'' Kryvbas (, full name Kryvorizkyi Iron Ore Basin, ) is an important economic and historical region in central Ukraine ...

- Sergey Dranov and former player

Ukraine national football team The Ukraine national football team ( uk, Збірна України з футболу) represents Ukraine in men's international football and is governed by the Ukrainian Association of Football, the governing body for football in Ukraine. Ukr ...

Oleksiy Antyukhin. Another former player of the Ukraine national team -

Maksym Startsev Maksym Startsev ( uk, Максим Олександрович Старцев; born 20 January 1980) is a Ukrainian former goalkeeper and coach, 2014. After annexation of Crimea by Russia, he received his Russian citizenship and changed his name t ...

has been appointed goalkeeper coach. The presentation of the national team took place within the framework of the I Crimean Football Forum on 9 December 2016. The official date for the creation of the national team of Crimea was set on 13 March 2017, since this day in Sevastopol Crimeans held their first international friendly match in the framework of the Crimean Spring tournament with the amateur football club Rostselmash (

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don ( rus, Ростов-на-Дону, r=Rostov-na-Donu, p=rɐˈstof nə dɐˈnu) is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East Eu ...

), winning 5–0. After

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

a friendly match was planned with the Syrian national team, however it did not take place. The last match of the Crimea national team was held on 15 October 2019. Within the framework of the Third International Forum "Crimea in the global scientific and educational space" Crimeans played with the "Peace Team", a selection team which included foreign students studying in Crimea, representing

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

. The main time of the match ended with a score of 3–3, and only in the penalty shootout the foreign students proved to be stronger, winning with a score of 3–2.

External links

Crimea
at ConIFA (archived)
Crimea national football team
– Crimean Football Union

References

{{Confederation of Independent Football Associations members European national and official selection-teams not affiliated to FIFA Football teams in Russia 2015 establishments in Europe