Cascadia have received an invitation to play in a four-team exhibition tournament to be held in London next year.
The 2020 Southern Frontier Cup is being organized by International Surrey Football (ISF) and will be played at Whyteleafe FC’s Church Road ground on 23-24 May, 2020.
That was also the venue where Cascadia played their fist ever friendly, a 6-3 win against the Chagos Islands in May 2019.
[Gallery – Cascadia 6 : 3 Chagos Islands (opens in new window)]
ISF President Danny Clarke explained to Prost why he invited Cascadia:
“We wanted to bring together three of the strongest non-FIFA teams we could for this tournament and with a 6th place finish in the 2018 ConIFA World Football Cup, Cascadia’s place in that list is hard to dispute.
“We’re pleased to have them included and look forward to see how they perform against three teams they’ve never previously played against before.
“British Columbia’s city of Surrey, among other places, also creates a quirky link between the two regions.”
Surrey will be the host region in the four-team tournament.
They are a new side with only three games under their belt and a fourth to be played before the tournament starts. They have one win, against Cascadia’s old foes Barawa, and two losses against the Army side and the Chagossians.
Yorkshire will also be participating in the tournament. The White Rose County has have something in common with Cascadia. They began life in January 2018 with a 1-1 draw against the Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin), who beat Cascadia 4-1 later that year which was also Cascadia’s first ever match.
They now have eight games behind them with only the Parishes of Jersey and Tamil Eelam besting them.
The Cascadia side made an impression at Whyteleafe FC, enough to be invited back by their Surrey hosts
Photo: Tommy McMillan/Prost Amerika
Cascadia have never met either side and Surrey and Yorkshire are yet to meet, but both the English teams have played against Barawa and the Chagos Islands as have Cascadia.
Surrey won 3-1 in their debut fixture against Barawa in 2018 before losing to the Chagos Islands, 3-2, in their last game.
Yorkshire traveled to Haringey Borough’s ground in Tottenham in their first away game to beat Barawa, 7-2, after hosting the Chagos Islands in Yorkshire in their first win, by 6-0.
Cascadia like Yorkshire hold two wins over those opponents, having beaten Barawa 2-1 in Carshalton in the ConIFA World Cup as well as their big friendly win over the Islanders.
The four-team knock-out tournament will take place over two match days with a final to determine the winner and a play-off to decide third place.
Cascadia coach James Nichols had two reasons to be pleased about the invitation:
“We are delighted to be invited to this tournament. It is a testament to the impression Cascadia made on and off the pitch during the ConIFA World Cup and at last year’s friendly,” Nichols told Prost Amerika.
“It shows how far we have come in such a short time Also, I am delighted to be able to have preparation matches and a look at our squad in the run up to the World Cup.”
The final team will be announced on Saturday with speculation suggesting it will be one of Cornwall (who go by their Cornish language name of Kernow), Jersey, Isle of Man (Ellan Vannn), and the Chagos Islands.
However, Clarke’s quote that Cascadia will meet ‘three new teams’ suggests that it will not be the Chagossians who Cascadia met last year, or the Isle of Man who they met at the ConIFA Cup.
That leaves Cornwall or Jersey with the Channel Islanders seemingly the more active federation in recent months.
Cascadia
ConIFA World Cup
