IKP World Cup 2448

The IFP World Cup of 2448 was the inaugural IFP World Cup, the world championship for open league national football teams. It took place in Ahitereira. 31 national teams took part.

History
Throughout the 2440s, football was growing as a popular football outside of Alaxia as new leagues set up there under IFP. With the formation of the High Kingdoms in 2447, there began a movement for a grand tournament to find the best Alaxian team. This escalated into a worldwide tournament to find the world's best team. Originally a one-off event, the success of this world cup sparked a follow-up four years later (the 2452 World Cup) and then a series of tournaments taking place every four years.

The Ahitereiran Phutebola Committee, or APC, would be promptly formed, a temporary organization to oversee the whole event and selecting the Ahitereiran team, but as the World Cup see itself immensely successful, with many fans all over Oikia coming to see the game and tickets being all sold out, the APC would see itself dividing in two separate organizations, the International Phutebola Committee and the Ahitereiran Phutebola Association. The International Football Committee would then begin working on selecting the new world cup host and a new format for the Cup itself, eventually on 2449, it would come to a vote and the Runner-Up, Ginsukyo would host the next cup.

Format
The 2448 World Cup was the only world cup without a group stage, and one of two world cups without a qualification round, instead opting for a randomly chosen bracket of invited countries. Originally the cup was supposed to have 32 participating countries, but due to a logistical complication the Malayah team couldn't attend. The invited teams were simply an extension of what the APC had considered the best teams in the world, this led to some controversies, as many saw the nations participating as sub-par. Due to Malayah's absence, the hosting country was decided to move forward one bracket automatically, leading to more controversies, as many argued it should've been a random choice.

Round of 30
The first game, Mem - Peryzium, saw the first goal in the world cup, and the first clean sheet by the Mem goal-keep. While Peryzium seemed more equipped, with a team of elite players used to some of the highest level of play in the East Alaxian Leagues, when faced with Mem's unorthodox strategies, saw themselves get 2 goals in the first 20 minutes. Such goals would allow Mem to play their main strategy, the great wall. Swapping their strikers with defenses, Mem's strange technique would see itself play in its favour, as most Peryziumites didn't know how to pass through it, being almost barraged with players as soon as they got the ball. Mem as such would be the first team to have both a clean sheet and score a goal in the World Cup.

Ladros' while playing in the Qateshi league, had many of its players hired by Ahitereiran and Kiavari teams and clubs, such that they would see themselves employ a generally East Alaxian strategy rather than a Qateshi style of play. Sadly for them, Nordleg Rike had prepared for such, as they expected that the majority of the nations in the tournament would employ such. The Nordlegi coach would see himself prepare various strategies before the match started, but as the whistle blew, and the Ladrosians had scored at the 13th Minute, desperation saw itself as the Skaven superstar striker scored the goal, but the game hadn't yet ended. The coach would persist with his strategy, and just 3 minutes later, Nordleg would score. The Ladrosian team would scramble losing a lot of camp soon after, and just 4 minutes after, Nordleg would score one more. The rest of the game would be monotonous as the Ladrosians would hold a strong defense while Nordleg kept trying to push, while failing.