The 2460 IFK World Cup was the 4th IFK World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for open league national phutebola teams organised by the IFK. It took place in Empherias and Grensalbourg, the first dual-host, from November to 21 December 2460, after the country was awarded the hosting rights in 2453. It was the third time the championships had been held in Alaxia, and the second time they were held in the High Kingdoms of Alaxia.
The tournament phase involved 24 teams, of which 22 came through qualifying competitions held in different continents between 2457 and 2459, while Empherias and Grensalbourg qualified automatically as host nations.
This world cup would be the second to not be invite-only, and include a qualification round. It would also be the first cup to include a proper process for qualification for Qatesh nations, although still limited. Empherias and Grensalbourg, the hosts, automatically qualified. Usually, just one country hosts and so only one slot is reserved for them. Therefore, East Alaxia would lose one of its available slots. Qateshi and Alaxian qualifications would be consolidated into a joint tournament between both confederations in their continents. The 12th place in Alaxia, and 3rd place in Acoria, would play an intercontinental playoff to decide the final space.
↑ 1.01.1They have a potential to gain an extra slot, pending on the results of the Intercontinental playoff.
Alaxian qualification
Qualification in the West and East Alaxian confederations were merged to have a much larger tournament. The combined Alaxia had 12 slots in the World Cup, with an extra potential one pending intercontinental results. The tournament would be held in two parts. The first round would see five groups drawn consisting of six teams each, excluding Group A and Group B which had five due to only a total of 28 countries involved. Groups were drawn using pots that approximated similar team strength. The first and second placing countries in each group would qualify for the World Cup, while third placing countries would go to the second round. The second round was a sixth group consisting of all five third-placers. The first and second placing countries here qualified for the World Cup, with the third placing country going to an intercontinental playoff with an East Qateshi nation.
In the first round, 2 games would be played per fixture, while in the second round it was just 1 game per fixture. 110 matches were played across all six groups. To read the table, the score on the left was achieved by the team named on the row, while the score on the right was achieved by the team's flag shown in the column header. Concerning the first round: the matches played on the top-right were played first, across matchdays in 2453; the matches played on the bottom-left were played second, across matchdays in 2455. Concerning the second round, All matches were played in the matchdays in late 2455 and early 2456. The intercontinental playoff between East Qatesh would be played in March 2456.
Qualification in the Acoria confederation was recommended by IFK due to the standard of economies in the region. It would consist of a single round robin tournament, with 2 games per fixture. Two countries would qualify for the World Cup, while third place would go to an intercontinental playoff against North Qatesh. The top-right matches were in the first half of 2455, while the bottom-left matches were in the second half of 2455.
Due to conflicts within IFK management over cost and organisation, no qualification round was held in North or East Qatesh. Therefore, the teams qualifying and those in the intercontinental playoffs were individually invited. The slots to fill were 3 spots in North Qatesh, 4 in East Qatesh, and another one from each for the intercontinental playoffs. Holy Tempest Empire, Cammel, Yasja-Kanusphra were the West Qatesh nations invited; while United Republic, Suton, Skuria, Ladros were the East Qatesh nations invited. Alsara and Blia were picked to fill up the intercontinental spots.
John Masdon, the key striker to Empherias, is severely injured by a Kanusphran player - who subsequently is given a red card. Masdon is taken off by a medical team in the 67th minute and is not allowed by his doctors to compete in the rest of the tournament
The first quarter-final match would kick off with the hosts, Solan, getting an immediate yellow card in the first minute. Many said this was a bad omen for the match to come, but they proved them wrong. Kanusphra had again utilised an entirely defensive team to try and hold out the game to the semi-finals, but Solan was able to break this down with set piece tactics to goat Kanusphran players into fouling and giving free kicks and penalties to open up the box. This allowed a goal by Solan in the 37th minute and the crowd, full to the brim with Solanese people, cheer furiously which demoralised the opposing team. Eventually, constant pressure by Solanese strikers saw Kanusphra concede a second goal later in the second half in the 73rd minute, securing a Solan victory with great commiserations to Kanusphra for defying expectations to get there.
Possibly the biggest match of the knockouts thus far, this match pitted two massive juggernauts of phutebola: Ahitereira and Fazar against each other. Although, both teams played relatively safe in the first half with only 8 shots between them, pressure ramped up in the second half. Ahitereira's star striker scored an excellent goal in the 56th minute to give Ahitereira the lead, while he returned yet again five minutes later! It was not over for Fazar however as a penalty kick granted to them saw them inch closer to survival, with an equaliser in the 80th minute to secure this. This left both teams going into extra time, although Fazar was already out of substitutions. Extra time was a rollercoaster as Fazar scored a whopper of an opening goal in the 92nd minute. Some people thought the game was up, but a great free kick from Ahitereira's centre-forward saw them equalise by half time, and Ahitereira's star striker got himself another hat trick and the Ahitereiran win with a super goal in injury time.
One of the lesser attended matches of the quarter-finals was Aether against Livyirin. Both teams were smaller Alaxian teams who had unexpectedly done well and both were aiming at reaching their first semi-finals. Livyirin was experimenting with it's starting eleven, wishing to try out a new formation with their secondary striker which would focus more on going wide. This bizarre and sudden change in tactic caught Aether off guard, who were unprepared in the first half and conceded two early goals. In the second half, Aether were able to maintain more possession and prevent any further major damage, but Livyirin were able to finish off with a late goal in the 62nd minute. Pundits did suggest that Aether had played brilliantly regardless.
The last quarter-final game was Skuria against Tupalei'i, a matchup that had ended in a draw in the group stage. However, Tupalei'i was disadvantaged in the fact that they had to play two more matches in the second chance round and thus had sustained various injuries, notably their main striker was absent due to a pulled muscle. This allowed Skuria to exploit a mostly slower Acorian side. Skuria, despite racking up three yellow cards in the first half alone, managed to defend free kicks from the Tupalei'i side with miracles, and managed to score their own goal in the 36th minute. A lackluster second half, and another injury from Tupalei'i which saw their primary player sent off, meant that Tupalei'i couldn't stage a comeback to tie up the game like in the group stage. Thus, the match ended with not much action with a Skurian victory. Some pundits suggested that in the first half, Skuria only had possession for a quarter of the time despite their win.
The first semi-final saw the hosts, Solan, up against a very unlikely contender in Livyirin. Solan against continued it's winning strategy of set pieces, while Livyirin kept it's wide positioning, with players starting more confident in the tactic and with some small training sessions on headers and crossing. The match began with huge cheering on the side of Solan, and the Solanese striker very confident and swaggering, but after their first attack and Livyirin's repel, the counter-attack from Livyirin was speedy and quick, with the wingers running incredibly fast to cross to the Livyirin strikers. This exact scenario happened four times in the first half, with only two of these being intercepted by the defenders, and the other two scoring with an useless goalkeeper. Solan switched up it's strategy to try and win the ultimate comeback and win back the crowd, which they did with great morale. This new defensive strategy on the sides saw Livyirin win no more goals, but Solan only managed to win a free kick in the 90th minute to still lose. Livyirin had defeated the hosts and won worldwide acclaim being in the finals.
The second semi-final saw world champions Ahitereira against Skuria, an incredibly unexpected opponent. Ahitereira was quite confident and smug believing they could easily beat Skuria, a small skaven nation, and believed their path was easy. However they underestimated their side and this led to a very complacent first half. The second half opened up with Ahitereira's star striker missing an open goal, but a centre-forward managing to rectify the situation with a chip goal in the 57th minute. The game slowed significantly afterwards and despite a few minor challenges, the score line remained the same and allowed for an Ahitereiran win. While a victory, Ahitereira was displeased with the result against Skuria but remained confident, while Skuria was incredibly happy to reach as far as the semi-finals and hold their own.
The third place playoff was between Solan and Skuria. Unfortunately for Skurian fans, they were unable to overcome the might of Solan fighting at home and trying to make up for their lost against Livyirin. With two disallowed goals for offside, Solan still managed to score two goals: one in the 17th minute and another in the 46th minute. However, Skuria made great attempts to try and get back into the game but sadly it was futile and they ended 4th place.
The final of the 2456 IFK World Cup was between Livyirin and Ahitereira. Both teams were Alaxian and had played each other before, and had done very well out of the world cup. Ahitereira were the favourites going in, being the reigning championships, although the morale for getting a major title wasn't as high anymore. Livyirin was seen mostly as an underdog having never won a major tournament or even expecting to get far in the world cup. Livyirin went with it's new wide-focused strategy with some changes to the midfield to distract. Ahitereira's main weapon was it's star striker but a decent defence looking for constant possession. Despite their focused attack, Livyirin had maintained a clean sheet excluding one goal from Solan in the entire knockouts. The game remained pretty boring for the first half, with Ahitereira seeing few chances to break through, and having 3 of their 5 shots going wide, and the others being saved. Livyirin's strategy hadn't paid off yet but they did achieve two shots on target. The second half began with an Ahitereiran capture of the ball and slow build up towards the Livyirin side. However, a break from the Livyirin winger saw a fierce counter-attack and a cross into the box and then into the goal. Livyirin was up in the final and Ahitereira had to do something. Their solution was constant pressure which wearied both sides down significantly for the next thirty minutes without much result. However, after constant attacks, the Ahitereiran star striker scored against a weakened Livyirin defence in the 86th minute to bring the game to extra time.
Extra time began with both teams taking it slow, unwilling to rush into any particular attack in fear of being retaliated against. The second half of extra time saw no major events either and most teams preparing for a penalty shootout to end the world cup. Although, there was a challenge by Ahitereiran centre-forward which scored - but was deemed offside. Ahitereiran substituted new strikers, and Livyirin did the same. One event then occurred that shaped the outcome: the injury of Ahitereiran's star striker. In a last minute challenge to the Ahitereiran goal, the Livyirin left-winger (who received a yellow card) seemed to twist the Ahitereiran golden boy's ankle. Thus, when the game did go to penalties, the Ahitereiran management was conflicted on what to do. They decided that since he was such a good talent, he must take a penalty shot first. The penalties then went ahead, the star striker missed his penalty, alongside two other Ahitereirans who had subbed on towards the end of extra time without much warmup. Livyirin scored four of their goals against a demoralised goalkeeper, worried for his friend. Therefore, the biggest underdog story won over, Livyirin won the world cup.
Empherias and
Grensalbourg
Hveden Federation
66' 
79'
80' (83), 88' Striker A
