[1] As a consequence, in July 2015, ConIFA announced that its executive committee had unanimously voted to award the 2016 World Football Cup to Abkhazia.

It stated that, in addition to the quality of the bid, the decision would send out the message that ConIFA would stand by all of its members.

[2] Subsequent to this decision, ConIFA announced that it would sanction a number of friendly tournaments featuring its members as part of the qualification, with the first of these being the Niamh Challenge Cup, a four team tournament hosted by Ellan Vannin.

The draw was made by ConIFA World President Per-Anders Blind in Luleå on 1 April 2016:[6] In December 2015, following advice from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office over security concerns regarding travel to Abkhazia, the Manx Independent Football Alliance announced that the Ellan Vannin team would withdraw from the World Football Cup, and instead take part in the 2016 Europeada Championship in Italy.

In March 2016, ConIFA announced that Padania had been expelled from the tournament due to procedural irregularities, to be replaced by Székely Land.