UEFA Regions' Cup Qualifiers 2024

[CBL20]

The Munster FA are representing Ireland in the UEFA Regions Cup Qualifiers this coming week. They kick off their campaign tomorrow in UEFA HQ in Nyon, Switzerland. Follow all the games on social media platforms for regular updates.

https://www.instagram.com/munsterfa/
https://www.facebook.com/MunsterFA
https://x.com/MunsterFA
https://www.linkedin.com/company/munsterfa/

[CBL20]

Match Day 2 tomorrow v Northern Ireland, KO 10:30 Irish Time

[Eirambler]

If Northern Ireland are considered to be a "country" by UEFA, surely they should be sending some sort of sub region to the Regions Cup, like Fermanagh or something. Or are they not seen as a football "country" by UEFA - in which case maybe they shouldn't be still allowed an international team?

[Eirambler]

Actually, to be fair to them, Munster appear to be playing a team called Northern Ireland (Western Region), which presumably qualifies as a sub region of some sort.

I see an Irish team called "Eastern Region" actually won this competition outright in 2015 and we had a finalist another year called "Leinster and Munster" (again stretching the concept of a region a bit there). It's a bit of an odd competition to be honest.

[EalingGreen]

If Northern Ireland are considered to be a "country" by UEFA, surely they should be sending some sort of sub region to the Regions Cup, like Fermanagh or something. Or are they not seen as a football "country" by UEFA - in which case maybe they shouldn't be still allowed an international team?

Actually, to be fair to them, Munster appear to be playing a team called Northern Ireland (Western Region), which presumably qualifies as a sub region of some sort.

I see an Irish team called "Eastern Region" actually won this competition outright in 2015 and we had a finalist another year called "Leinster and Munster" (again stretching the concept of a region a bit there). It's a bit of an odd competition to be honest.

UEFA/FIFA do not recognise "countries", whether in inverted commas or not, they recognise National Football Associations. Which explains eg why FIFA has 211 affiliated Associations but the UN only has 193 Member states - the difference is made up by the likes of Hong Kong, Macau, Gibraltar, Palestine and the four British Associations etc, who all have international football teams.

Meanwhile, the UEFA Regions Cup offers an opportunity for amateur footballers to play in international competition which they would never normally experience. And in order to permit equality between Associations big and small, each UEFA Member Association is required to grade its domestic amateur football into regions. So that a large country like England or Germany will have to supply a representative from a dozen or more(?) regions, medium-sized Associations will select from maybe half a dozen, while smaller Associations will select from two or three. ("Micro" Associations like eg Andorra, Liechtenstein or Gibraltar are treated as a single Region).

Northern Ireland comprises two Regions: Eastern which covers the Co.Antrim and Mid-Ulster FA's, and Western, which covers the Fermanagh & Western and North West FA's:
https://www.irishfa.com/news/2024/oc...fa-regions-cup

While this year, as I mentioned previously in the Munster Senior League thread in the Intermediate Leagues section of this forum, Munster qualified from the FAI's four (Provincial) Regions,:
https://www.extratime.com/articles/3...qualification/

Coincidentally, the two were drawn together in this season's Qualifying round, along with Vaud (Switzerland) and Bridge (Georgia):
https://www.uefa.com/regionscup/matc...ion/standings/
(The UEFA website is not quite clear, but I assume Vaud have now gone through to the next stage?)

HTH