2015 AFA Alliance World Cup

The 2015 AFA Alliance World Cup is an international men's football tournament scheduled to take place in January 2015. This will be the second Alliance World Cup in the Alliance of Independent Nations and ran by the Alliance Football Association.

The bidding process of the Alliance World Cup took place between 1 July and 1 October. Although interest was declared by nations Histalpol and Escambia, no bid was put up and so it was decided that Kingston and Boyce, previous winner, will host the Championship.

The Final saw both West Coast power houses and rivals Escambia and Kingston and Boyce meet. After an exciting match, it took until the second period of overtime for a team to score, with Kingston and Boyce eventually winning and defending their title.

Utilising of the bidding process
A bidding process was created and utilised for this Alliance World Cup after New Holland's hosting of the 2014 AFA Alliance World Cup was strewn with issues from the member nation leaving AIN to constant delayed games.

For the bidding process, the AFA took up a method taken by FIFA where the previous continent to host a tournament would not be allowed to bid to give other continents fairer chance of hosting. Since the last tournament was held in Oceania, Oceanic and Australian nations were banned from bidding for the tournament, leaving Europe, East Asia and North America as the remaining areas allowed to host the tournament.

Bids
Histalpol was the first nation to show interest in hosting the tournament, replying to the call for bids on the day of the announcement. The idea to bid was backed by the Histalian Minister of Culture, Art and Sport pointing out that the bid would force improvement on badly maintained stadiums which were discovered by the Ministry of Health in 2013.

Escambia expressed interest in bidding the next day. Illium and Neu Westfalen both expressed interest but were not allowed to bid as they both are in the Oceania and Australia range.

Decision
After both bids remained at only expressing interest and not coming forward with a bid by mid November, it was decided to award the hosting rights of the World Cup to previous winners Kingston and Boyce.

Qualification
Following qualification matches between May 2014 and November 2014, the following 24 teams – shown with their final pre-tournament AFA World Rankings – qualified for the final tournament. 14 out of the 24 teams to qualify were returning participants from the 2014 AFA World Cup. Ten Nations were newcomers into the World Cup, with no prior world cup experience, including highest valued Escambia. Most notable absence was from previous hosts New Holland, who were ejected from the AFA after the 2013 Manipulation Scandal was identified to be sourced there.

Asia (3)
 * Okatabawashi (16)
 * Teiko (18)
 * Nakama (24)

Oceania (6)
 * Asgard (14)
 * Illium (17)
 * Calaré (23)
 * New Duveland (4)
 * Neu Westfalen (5)
 * Torainn (19)

Africa (3)
 * Galbadia (21)
 * Atlantic Federation (8)
 * Nyanga (15)

Europe (6)
 * Cattala (2)
 * Hiigara (15)
 * Histalpol (11)
 * Goverland (12)
 * Sainte-Croix (6)
 * Zagoria (22)

America (6)
 * Lisieux (13)
 * Lower Columbia (10)
 * Corraile (9)
 * Escambia (3)
 * Kingston and Boyce (1)
 * Marquette (20)

Referees
On November 20, the AFA published the 16 Referees who were to govern games during the World Cup. It was also decided that Peter Presley of Illium were to govern the Opening Match.

Venues
12 Venues in 9 cities across the nation were chosen to host the games of the World Cup. Kingston's Dames Dome would host the opening match, whileas the King Alexis Stadium in Kingston would be hosting the Final. Semi Finals were awarded to Portland's Excelsior Arena and the CARTERdome in Port Ruppert.

Group A
Group A was drawn on November 20. Kingston and Boyce were set on top of Group A, as hosts of the World Cup. The draw saw Marquette, Asgard and Zagoria join in the group.

Group B
Group B was drawn on November 20. It includes Previous runners up Cattala, Teiko, Corraile and Lisieux.

Group C
Group C was drawn on November 20. Previously Third Placed New Duveland were joined by Okatabawashi, Nyanga and Calaré

Group D
Group D was drawn on November 20. Escambia, Histalpol, Torainn and Galbadia were drawn into Group D

Group E
Group E was drawn on November 20. Group E Saw previously fourth placed Neu Westfalen joined by Sainte-Croix, Nakama and Goverland.

Group F
Group F was drawn on November 20. It includes previous Quarter-finalists Atlantic Federation and Lower Columbia, as well as Illium and Hiigara.

Direct qualifiers
As being the four best teams, following teams advanced directly to the quarter-finals:

1 - Escambia 2 - Kingston and Boyce 3 - Sainte-Croix 4 - Lower Columbia

Qualifying round
All other eight teams that advanced out of the group stage had to go through a single-game knockout stage to determine the four other quarter-finalists. The following teams advanced:

5 - Atlantic Federation 6 - New Duveland 7 - Cattala 8 - Neu Westfalen 9 - Lisieux 10 - Asgard 11 - Nyanga 12 - Histalpol

-

--

--

Quarter-finals
The quarter-finals saw the direct qualifiers meet the four other teams that succeeded in the qualifying round.

-

--

--

Semi-finals
Each of the direct qualifiers defeated their opponents in the quarter-finals to advance to the semi-finals.

--

Goalscorers

 * Kingston and Boyce player Charles Miller was the first player to score, doing so in the opening match against Marquette.
 * There was no own goal at this year's tournament.
 * Kingston and Boyce player Rick Rogers was the only player to record a hat trick in this tournament, scoring three times in his side's second game win against Zagoria.
 * Escambia scored the most goals in this tournament, scoring altogether 21 times. Second placed is Kingston and Boyce, who scored 19 times.

Awards

 * Golden Ball for the Tournament's MVP: Matt Boone
 * Golden Boot for the tournament's Top Scorer: Matt Boone (6 goals, two assists)
 * Golden Glove for the tournament's best Goalkeeper: Kyle Kennedy (Clean sheet in three appearances)
 * Best Young Player: Rick Rogers
 * AFA Fair Play Trophy:  Escambia

All-Star Team
The All-Star Team was decided by an online public vote, in which people were invited to select a team (in a 4–4–2 formation) and best coach. Voting was open until 23:59 on 26 January, 2014 with entrants going into a draw to win a prize.


 * Goalkeeper: Kyle Kennedy
 * Defenders: Geoff Spencer,  Thomas Richards,  Matt Boone,  Pierre Lefevre
 * Midfielders: Corbin Marius,  Alex Steward,  Bo Yamaté,  Joaquim Oporto
 * Forwards: Rick Rogers,  Felipe Falcon
 * Coach: Christian Osieck