The ELF Cup (''Equality, Liberty, Fraternity'') was an international

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 ...

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 teams, and

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 ...

member teams from the Asian Football Confederation.

ELF Cup 2006

The 2006 ELF Cup took place in the North Cyprus between November 19 and 25. Initially announced for non-FIFA teams only, the 2006 tournament also found places for three teams from the Asian Football Confederation - Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. However, under pressure from FIFA, Afghanistan withdrew from the tournament.

Controversy

Initially, it was announced that the North Cyprus were to hold the inaugural VIVA World Cup tournament, organised by the NF-Board as a bi-annual competition for the best non-FIFA nations. However, a dispute between the NF-Board and a new regime at the KTFF led to the tournament being taken away and granted to

Occitania Occitania ( oc, Occitània , , or ) is the historical region in Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe where the Occitan language, Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes still used as a second language. This ...

. The NF-Board claimed that the new government of the North Cyprus insisted on restricting which nations could and could not take part. The KTFF, however, claimed that the NF-Board made unreasonable financial demands. In response, the KTFF announced that the ELF Cup would be held at the same time as the VIVA World Cup, and have promised to pay travelling expenses to the participants, which has attracted some NF-Board members. The KTFF hope that the tournament will bring North Cyprus further into the international arena.

Competitors

* – representing the Crimean Tatars. * –

Gagauzia Gagauzia or Gagauz-Yeri, or ; ro, Găgăuzia; russian: Гагаузия, Gagauziya officially the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia; ro, Unitatea Teritorială Autonomă Găgăuzia, ''UTAG''; russian: Автономное территор ...

, an autonomous region of Moldova. * – an autonomous region of Denmark, and nominally under the control of the

Danish Football Association The Danish Football Union ( da, Dansk Boldspil-Union; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of the Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues and the men's and women's national t ...

and is a NF-Board member. * – a member of the

AFC AFC may stand for: Organizations * Action for Children, a UK children's charity * AFC Enterprises, the franchisor of Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits * Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African multilateral development finance institution * A ...

and

, represented here by their futsal team. * – a member of the

and

, represented here by their futsal team. * – an autonomous region of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, fiercely independent in exile and is a NF-Board member. * – the hosts, an internationally unrecognised state and is a NF-Board member. * – autonomous region of Tanzania, but with membership of the CAF and of the NF-Board, represented here by their under-20 national team.

Results

The eight participants were drawn into two groups of four, with the top two from each group progressing to the knockout stage. For details of the squads, see 2006 ELF Cup Squads.

Group A

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Group B

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Semi-finals

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3rd Place Playoff

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Final

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Golden Team

Scorers

;6 goals * Ertaç Taşkıran ;5 goals * Hamis Çakır ;4 goals * Ulan Riskulov ;3 goals * Jenish Mamatov * Daler Aknazarov * Kemal Uçaner * Ediz Çukurovalı * Muhammed Seif Muhammed ;2 goals * Piotr Marcov * Marlen Akimov * Mihail Sundeev * Derviş Kolcu * Sabri Selden * Coşkun Ulusoy ;1 goal * İrfan Ametov * Ablâmetov Arsen * Ebubekirov Fevziy * Halil Hayredinov * Emiratlı Ruslan * Denis Ceavdari * Niklas Kreutzmann * Pelle Mortensen * Kristian Sandgreen * Mustafayev Arsen * Dilshat Kadyrov * Vadim Kondratkov * Sundeev Mihail * Sergey Almukhamedov * Firdavs Faizullaev * Atkun Arıkbuka * Yasin Kansu * Ekrem Keleşzade * Hasan Sapsızoğlu * Rajab Rashid Omar * Suleiman Kassim Suleiman ;Own goals *

Rizvan Ablitarov Rizvan Ablitarov ( uk, Різван Решатович Аблітаров; born 18 April 1989) is a Ukrainian professional footballer who plays as a defender. Career Club Ablitarov is product of the UOR Simferopol youth system. On 15 January ...

(playing against TRNC)

Trivia

* All the matches were played with Adidas Teamgeist balls.