The III Internatia Cup will be the 3rd Internatian Championship for men's national football teams organised by (CIF). It is scheduled to be held in Sunetti during the month of February.
For the second time, the Internatian Championship final tournament will be contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format that was used during the first Championship. Under this new format, the finalists will contest a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout stage including three rounds and the final. As hosts, Sunetti have automatically qualified for the final tournament, while the other 54 national teams will compete in a qualifying competition, running from 2 February to 13 February 2015, to secure the remaining 23 places.
Six bids came before the deadline at 5 May 2013 which were Novatlantida, Sibinia, Spirevo, Sunetti and Tikata as single bids each and Irdminia and Mukaltin as a joint bid.
Sunetti was the only nation who placed a bid before the deadline at 23 January 2015, and therefore earned the right to host the tournament.
Finals format
The format for the final tournament will remain the same as the 2nd Championship. The six groups (A to F) would still contain four teams each, with the top two from each group still going through to the knockout stage. The four best third-ranked sides would also progress, leaving 16 teams going into the round of 16 knockout stage, ahead of the usual quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, and only 8 teams going out at the group stage.
This format generates a total of 52 games, compared with 32 games for the previous 16-team tournament, to be played over a period of XX days. CIF's general secretary Filipa Peterson previously described the format as "not ideal" due to the need for third-ranked teams in the group stage advancing, leading to a difficulty in preventing situations where teams might be able to know in advance what results they need to progress out of the group, lending to a lack of suspense for fans, or even the prospect of mutually beneficial collusion between teams.
Tiebreakers
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria will be applied:
Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
If only two teams have the same number of points, and they are tied according to criteria 1–6 after having met in the last round of the group stage, their ranking is determined by a penalty shoot-out (this criteria is not used if more than two teams have the same number of points).
Fair play conduct (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);
In the knockout stages, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time shall be played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty spot to determine the winner.
Sunetti
Novatlantida
Alexandria
Mukaltin
Edoriada
Tikata
Sibinia
San Remo
Spirevo
Monteverde
Kaledonii
Chruno
Tashkveny
Irdminia
Pebbleland
Marvelia
