CISM Military World Football Cup

Football, along with track and field and swimming, were the first sports in which a championship was officially organised under the responsibility of CISM.

The first championship took place in Prague in 1946 under the responsibility of the Armed Forces Sports Council, which in 1948 became CISM. Great Britain won the first title and Czechoslovakia was the runner-up.

The championships continued on an annual basis until 1969. Regional and continental winners were invited to play in a final tournament for which the host country automatically qualified. Until 1967 the tournament usually involved 4 teams except for 1953 (6) and 1962 (2) in Korea. In 1968 and 1969 the tournament was composed of 6 teams but the matches were filled with many incidents that were detrimental to the image of CISM. For this reason the 24th General Assembly of Rome decided to cancel the 1970 tournament and to reconsider the future of the competition.

In 1972 the tournament restarted on an annual basis. In November 1973, at the suggestion of General Knulst (Netherlands), president of PTC for football, the 28th General Assembly of Ambroise (France) approved the biennial format.

Since 1975 (Baghdad), the tournament has been organised every odd-numbered year. It comprised 8 teams in 1975 and 1977 and 6 in 1979 and 1981.

In 1982 and 1983, many organisational problems disturbed the running of the tournament with frequent un-sportsmanlike conduct and gestures. In April 1983, the 38th General Assembly of Zurich decided to terminate the ongoing competition and selected Kuwait and Belgium to play the final. It decided to cancel the tournament indefinitely and dissolved the PTC.

In 1985, many delegations requested the reversal of the decision to cancel the competitions and, during the 40th General Assembly of Seoul, Commandant Raoul Mollet the Permanent Secretary General, proposed the resumption of the tournament under a set of regulations close to the ones presently in use today.

Except for 1987 when it included 6 teams, the tournament was normally comprised of 9 teams with two per continent plus the organising nation.

Starting in 1995, the tournament was played with 12 teams with automatic berths going to the organizing nation and the defending champion.

Regarding an initiative of the former President Colonel Hamad Kalkaba CISM started in with the 1st CISM Football Trophy in 2013. Azerbaijan hosted the first edition of the trophy with 16 participating nations in the capital Baku.

The first namely trophy in 2013 now changed to “Cup” for the second edition in Oman 2017 following the proposal of the CISM President Col A. Alshino, this to give the event more recognition.  In 2017, 16 teams met in Oman for the 2nd CISM World Football Cup.

Additionally, every 4 years, a Military World Championship Football will be organized during the CISM Military Summer World Games.