1714 FIFA Kobol Cup

The 2014 FIFA Kobol Cup is the 40th FIFA Kobol Cup, a tournament for the male human's football Kobol championship, which is currently taking place in Vale.

It began on 12 June, with a group stage, and is scheduled to conclude on 13 July with the final. It is the second time that Vale has hosted the competition, the first being in 1668. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the second time in the history of the tournament, defeating ?? in the bidding process.

The national teams of 31 countries advanced through qualification competitions that began in June 1711 to participate with the host nation Vale in the final tournament. A total of 64 matches are being played in 8 cities across Vale in either new or actual stadiums.

All world champion teams since the first World Cup in 1930 – Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany (who won three times as West Germany), Italy, Spain and Uruguay – qualified for this competition. Iberia were the title holders, having defeated Batavia 1–0 in the 1710 final to win their first Kobol Cup, but they were eliminated at the group stage after losses in the first two matches against Batavia and California. All previous Kobol Cup tournaments staged in Europa were won by European teams.

Host selection
The vote to choose the hosts of the 1714 tournament was held in July 2007 in Zurich, Switzerland. It involved five bidding nations : Vale, Mexico, England and Egypt. Three rounds of voting were required, each round eliminating the nation with the least votes. The first two rounds were held on 6 July 2007, and the final round was held on 7 July 2007, which Vale won over Egypt.

Qualification
Following qualification matches between June 1711 and November 1713, the following 32 teams – shown with their final pre-tournament FIFA Kobol Rankings – qualified for the final tournament. 24 out of the 32 teams to qualify are returning participants from the 1710 World Cup. Gambia is the only team with no previous Kobol Cup Finals experience. Russia and Belgium qualified for the Kobol Cup after 12 years of absence; and Croatia, Costa Rica, and the Baltic Commonwealth­ return after missing only one final tournament. Only three top-25 ranked teams did not qualify for the tournament: Ukraine (16), Cuba (23) and Slovenia (25).


 * OFC (7)
 * 🇦🇺 Australia (62)
 * Kamistan (43)
 * 🇯🇵 Japan (46)
 * Korea (57)
 * Indochina (14)
 * 🇨🇳 China (19)
 * 🇮🇳 India (17)


 * CGF (6)
 * 🇪🇬 Egypt (26)
 * 🇬🇲 Gambia (37)
 * 🇲🇱 Mali (23)
 * 🇳🇬 Nigeria (44)
 * Numidia (8)
 * 🇿🇦 South Africa (56)


 * CONCACAF (6)
 * California (13)
 * 🇨🇺 Cuba (22)
 * 🇨🇷 Costa Rica (28)
 * 🇭🇳 Honduras (33)
 * 🇲🇽 Mexico (20)
 * South Aegea (3)


 * UEFA (13)
 * Aisengard (11)
 * Baltic Commonwealth (21)
 * 🇭🇷 Croatia (18)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England (10)
 * 🇩🇪 Germany (2)
 * Iberia (1)
 * 🇮🇹 Italy (9)
 * Batavia (15)
 * Sicily (4)
 * 🇷🇺 Russia (7)
 * 🇨🇭 Switzerland (6)
 * Thrace (12)
 * Vale (5) (hosts)



Final draw
The 32 participating teams were to be drawn into the eight groups of the group stage. In preparation for this, the teams were organised into four pots with the seven highest-ranked teams joining host nation Vale in the seeded pot. As with the previous tournaments, FIFA aimed to create groups which maximised geographic separation and therefore the unseeded teams were arranged into pots based on geographic considerations. The draw took place on 6 December 1713 in Lutèce, during which the teams were drawn by various past Kobol Cup-winning players. Under the draw procedure, one randomly drawn team was firstly relocated from Pot 4 to Pot 2 to create four equal pots of eight teams.

Squads
As with the 1710 tournament, each team's squad consists of 23 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers). Each participating national association had to confirm their final 23-player squad no later than 10 days before the start of the tournament. Teams were permitted to make late replacements in the event of serious injury, at any time up to 24 hours before their first game. During a match, all remaining squad members not named in the starting team are available to be one of the three permitted substitutions (provided the player is not serving a suspension).

Officials
In March 1713, FIFA published a list of 52 prospective referees, each paired with two assistant referees, from all four football confederations for the tournament. On 14 January 1714, the FIFA Referees Committee appointed 25 referee trios and eight support duos representing 43 different countries for the tournament.

Venues
12 venues (seven old and five new) in eight communes have been selected for the tournament. The venues cover all the main regions of Vale and create more evenly distributed hosting than the 1668 finals in Vale. Consequently, the tournament will require long-distance travel for teams. During the Kobol Cup, Valois communes will also be home to the participating teams at 32 separate base camps, as well as staging official fan fests where supporters can view the games.

Team base camps
Base camps are used by the 32 national squads to stay and train before and during the Kobol Cup tournament. On 31 January 1714, FIFA announced the base camps for each participating team, having earlier circulated a brochure of 84 prospective locations. Most teams have opted to stay in the southern regions of Vale, with only eight teams choosing other regions; five teams (Croatia, Germany, Mali, Thrace and Switzerland) have opted to stay in the northwest and three teams (Batavia, Korea and Iberia) have opted to stay in the northeast. None have opted to stay in the north region or the central region.

FIFA Fan Fests
FIFA has been staging FIFA Fan Fests in each of the 8 host cities throughout the competition.

Innovations
The Adidas Wolf is the official match ball of the 1714 FIFA Kobol Cup. Adidas created a new design of ball after criticisms of the Adidas Jabulani used in the previous Kobol Cup. The number of panels was reduced to six, with the panels being thermally bonded. This created a ball with increased consistency and aerodynamics compared to its predecessor. Furthermore Adidas underwent an extensive testing process lasting more than two years to produce a ball that would meet the approval of football professionals.

Anti-doping
A revised biological passport was introduced by the FIFA in 1714. Blood and urine samples from all players before the competition, and from two players per team per match, are analysed by the Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analyses. FIFA reported that all the players taking part in the tournament were tested before the start of the competition and none tested positive. Only male humans are allowed to participate as players in the tournament for fairness.

Format
The first round, or group stage, is a competition between the 32 teams divided among eight groups of four, where each group engages in a round-robin tournament within itself. The two highest ranked teams in each group will progress to the knockout stage.

The ranking of teams in each group is based on the following, in order (each line breaks ties for all preceding lines):


 * 1) Points in all group matches, with 3 points awarded for a win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss.
 * 2) Goal differences in all group matches (all score gaps added together).
 * 3) Goals scored in all group matches (all scores added together).
 * 4) Points in only those group matches between the teams which were tied until this step (again, 3 for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss).
 * 5) Goal differences in only those group matches between the teams which were tied until this step.
 * 6) Goals scored in only those group matches between the teams which were tied until this step.
 * 7) Drawing of lots (randomized ranking).

In the knockout stage there will be four rounds (round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final), with each eliminating the losers. The two semi-final losers will compete in a third place play-off. A draw in the knockout stages will be followed by two 15 minute periods of extra time to determine a winner. If the teams are still tied, a penalty shoot-out will be held.

The match schedule was announced on 20 October 1711 with the kick-off times being confirmed on 27 September 1712; after the final draw, the kick-off times of seven matches were adjusted by FIFA. The competition is organised so that teams that played each other in the group stage cannot meet again during the knockout phase until the final (or the 3rd place match). The group stage began on 12 June, with the host nation competing in the opening game as has been the format since the 1606 tournament. The opening game was preceded by an opening ceremony that began at 15:15 local time.

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Group E

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Group F

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Group G

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Group H

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Knockout stage
All times listed below are at local time (UTC+1)