Barely six months since its beer-soaked inception in the back room of a Yorkshire pub, the county’s first “international” football team has made its debut in a world league for stateless peoples.
The fledgling Yorkshire side, which now ranks alongside Tibet, Greenland and Darfur on the world football stage, earned a 1-1 draw against a highly-rated Isle of Man in front of 500 spectators in a tiny village stadium in Pontefract.
To chants of “Yorkshire! Yorkshire,” players ran on to the pitch flanked by local schoolchildren clutching flags bearing the white rose of York.
There was an early hiccup, however, when the ground’s sound system, instead of playing Yorkshire’s “national anthem”, On Ilkley Moor Baht ‘at, broke down.
Even the fact Sunday’s game took place at all was a huge success for the Yorkshire International Football Association (Yifa), nicknamed the Vikings, whose formation was only announced quietly on social media in July.
The players, chosen from about 100 applicants from the length and breadth of Yorkshire, had played barely one hour of football together before Sunday’s game owing, predictably, to poor weather.
In true Yorkshire style, the squad from God’s Own Country has snubbed joining the English Football Association and instead become part of the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (Conifa), meaning it will play against the likes of Tibet, Quebec, Greenland, Zanzibar, Darfur, South Ossetia, Northern Cyprus and Myanmar’s Rohingya group.
After the game, club chairman Philip Hegarty said Yorkshire would now challenge for next year’s Conifa European Championships and then the league’s World Cup.
“It’s just fantastic. I’ve been so overwhelmed by the organisational side of things that I haven’t had time to think about it but being here and seeing our lads pull on the jersey is just unbelievable. We’ve come out of nowhere, out of the blue, so I’m very happy with the turnout.”
Hegarty, a food warehouse manager by day, said the Yorkshire side came about partly as a result of the region’s disillusionment with London-centric politics, comparing it to “the extremes” of Tibet.
But for the hundreds of spectators at Sunday’s inaugural match, football was the only talking point – and the prospect of some exotic away fixtures.
“Do you know where Cascadia is? All I know is it’s a type of hops, but we’re off there,” said Dave Merifield, 36, from Bradford. “There’s something about being sat next to these genuinely oppressed people – I’m not sure Yorkshire compares to that but we’ve definitely got an identity here.”
Ian Smith, 33, who found himself running the club’s East Yorkshire supporters branch just three weeks ago, said it was “unreal” to see a Yorkshire “international” side and that he would travel the world to see them play.
“Catalans have got a team and they’re quite tasty. They’ve had Puyol, Iniesta, Fàbregas. A nice trip to Barcelona would be cracking,” he said.
In the ground’s clubhouse, three generations of striker Matt Bradley’s family were bursting with pride. His father, Glyn Bradley, 45, said: “You’re born in Yorkshire and then you represent the county – this is like representing England in a way. You’ve got people coming up to you in the street. The feeling is unbelievable.”
Clutching a blue pyrotechnic flare behind one of the goals, Harry Barker, 18, vowed to travel far and wide and become a lifelong supporter of his new favourite club. “I think there’s a growing sense in Yorkshire that we want to do things for ourselves,” he said. “This is one aspect of that but it’s definitely growing. I hope people get behind it and I think they will.”
His friend, Harry Caldecott, also 18, added: “There’s a game in March up in Scotland so we will definitely get the coach up for that. Then we’ll book a week off for the Euros next year!”
