It was a World Cup full of goals, political intrigue and pressure of an expectant home crowd. Amid equal measures of excitement and agony, penalties decided most of the second round games. In the end, an unlikely champion was crowned.
这场世界杯充满了进球，也充满了政治阴谋，球员们承受着家乡球迷翘首以待的压力。第二轮的大部分比赛都由点球决出胜负，这带来了兴奋，也带来了同样多的痛苦。最后，一支球队出人意料地获得了冠军。
Not to be confused with the World Cup finals now underway in Brazil, this tournament took place last month in the northern Swedish city of Ostersund. As 203 national teams fought a two-and-a-half-year battle across six continents to qualify for Brazil, the Swedish tournament, called the Conifa World Cup, was played by national teams not recognized by FIFA, the sport’s governing body.
不要把它和目前正在巴西进行的世界杯决赛半决赛混为一谈。这场世界杯是上个月在瑞典北部城市厄斯特松德进行的。为了获得前往巴西参赛的资格，来自六大洲的203支国家队进行了两年半的争夺；而参与瑞典“独立足球联盟世界杯”(Conifa World Cup)的国家队，却没有得到足球运动的管理机构国际足联(FIFA)的认可。
The participating teams represent a collection of unrecognized states, ethnic groups, islands and “frozen conflict” zones. Some want to raise awareness of their unique culture, while others hope for greater autonomy and perhaps even a nation of their own. And one of the first steps toward that, they believe, is having a national soccer team.The 12-team tournament included Iraqi Kurdistan, a self-governing region in the north of Iraq; Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both separatist states within Georgia; and Darfur, from Sudan.
这些参赛队伍代表了未被承认的国家、民族、岛屿和“冲突冻结”的地区。其中一些是想提升自己独特文化的知名度，另一些则希望获得更大的自治权，甚至自己建国。他们认为，向着那个目标前进的第一步，就是有一支国家足球队。12支比赛球队中，有伊拉克北部的自治区库尔德斯坦，格鲁吉亚境内的两个分离地区阿布哈兹和南奥塞梯，还有位于苏丹的达尔富尔。
Membership in FIFA can be intensely political. For many teams, membership confers legitimacy and a shot at reaching the World Cup finals, a huge stage from which to wave their nation’s flag.
FIFA成员资格有时具有强烈的政治性。对于很多球队来说，成员资格赋予了合法性，也提供了进入世界杯决赛的机会，那是一个巨大的舞台，人们可以在那里挥舞本国的国旗。
Palestine — recognized as a “nonmember observer state” by the United Nations and a member of FIFA since 1998 — now has a national stadium near Ramallah and has attempted to qualify for four World Cup finals. Other teams, like Kosovo, have been unable to join European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, because of political lobbying from Serbia. When Gibraltar, a British overseas territory on the Iberian Peninsula claimed by Spain, tried to join FIFA, Spain threatened to pull all of its teams — including the powerhouses of Barcelona and Real Madrid — from the European Champions League and international football. Despite the political pressure, Gibraltar became a member of UEFA in 2013 and hopes to join FIFA next.Almost all of the teams in Sweden have little chance of political recognition, and little chance of joining FIFA or any of its six confederations. The Conifa World Cup is the best opportunity for some of them to play international football.
巴勒斯坦被联合国承认为“非会员观察员国”，1998成为FIFA成员。该国目前在拉姆安拉附近建有一座国家体育馆，而且已经四次尝试入围世界杯决赛圈。另一些球队一直无法加入欧洲的足球管理机构欧洲足联(UEFA)，比如科索沃就是因为塞尔维亚的政治游说而未能加入UEFA。直布罗陀是英国在伊比利亚半岛的海外领土，西班牙一直声称对其拥有主权。当直布罗陀试图加入FIFA时，西班牙威胁从欧冠联赛和国际比赛中撤回所有西班牙球队，包括巴塞罗那和皇家马德里这样的强队。尽管遭遇了政治压力，直布罗陀2013年仍然成为了UEFA成员，并希望接下来加入FIFA。在瑞典比赛的球队中，几乎每一支球队获得政治认可的机会都很渺茫，也没什么可能加入FIFA或六个下属联盟中任何一个。独立足球联盟世界杯是它们中某些球队参加国际比赛的最大机会。
Darfur, playing its first games on a grass field, lost its debut match 20-0, and its second 19-0. In the quarterfinals Abkhazia met South Ossetia in the Georgian frozen conflict zone derby (South Ossetia won on penalties). But it was the county of Nice, from the South of France, and Ellan Vannin, the national team of the Isle of Man, a self-governing British crown dependency, that met in the final.
首次在草地上比赛的达尔富尔队首场以0比20战败，又以0比19输掉了第二场。在四分之一决赛中，阿布哈兹遭遇了南奥塞梯，上演了格鲁吉亚冲突冻结地区的德比战（南奥塞梯在点球大战中取胜）。但进入最后决赛的是法国南部的尼斯镇，和自治的英国皇家属地马恩岛的球队。
The match finished 0-0 and, like the 1994 World Cup final between Brazil and Italy, was decided by a penalty shootout. Nice prevailed, but for the players the tournament meant more than merely winning.“This has been about culture and friendship,” Conor Doyle of Ellan Vannin told Isle of Man News. “We showed our culture to the rest of the world. We’ve done our island proud.”
比赛结束时的比分为0比0，就像1994年世界杯巴西和意大利的决战一样，靠点球决出了胜负。尼斯赢了，但是对于运动员来说，这次比赛的意义不止于此。“它还与文化和友谊有关，”队长康纳·多伊尔(Conor Doyle)告诉马恩岛新闻(Isle of Man News)。“我们向世界展示了我们的文化，给我们的岛屿增了光。”