Cornwall will make their World Cup debut later this year.

The CONIFA World Football Cup, that is, after the Kernow Football Alliance was announced as one of 16 qualifiers for this summer's staging of the competition.

The competition, which will take place between May 30 and June 7 in the Republic of North Macedonia, is the flagship competition for CONIFA, which is the football governing body for non-FIFA affiliated nations.

The Kernow FA became one of CONIFA's 59 member nations in November 2018, and played their first-ever match in February of last year, a 3-2 win against a Foxhole Stars XI.

A 5-0 win over Barawa at Bodmin's Priory Park in their first official international match followed in May, before a 10-3 hammering of Chagos Islands at the same ground in a World Football Cup qualifier in August.

Kernow FA's inclusion in CONIFA will provide a platform for Cornwall to join the 58 other members across the globe, each with their own distinctive story - from nations, de-facto nations and regions to minority peoples and sports isolated territories.

The organisation's watershed moment came in June 2018 when thousands of spectators flocked to London to watch the 2018 World Football Cup, won by Karpatalja (representing the Hungarian minority in Carpathian Ruthenia).

Karpatalja will defend their crown at this summer's tournament, while the likes of Zimbabwean region Matabeleland, North American bioregion Cascadia, and Parishes of Jersey could also be potential opponents for Kernow FA, who are managed by Darren Gilbert and Phil Lafferty.

Kernow FA chairman, Jason Heaton, said in a statement posted on the organisation's Twitter page: "This is certainly a good time for Cornish football and Cornwall in general. [It has been] Two years in the making and still a lot of hard work to do.

"We should celebrate this moment and acknowledge the effort it has taken to get here and not let it go to our heads.

"We have a top team that knows what it takes to go all the way, to see something through and come out the other side smiling and that is what we need to focus on.

"Cornwall has before it a unique and genuinely exciting opportunity to excel and prove itself on the biggest stage available.

"For Cornish football this is as big as it gets. We need to get behind the players and make sure we create the very best opportunity to win this tournament."

The full list of competing nations is: Africa - Matabeleland, Kabylia, Darfur, Western Sahara. Asia - Tamil Eelam, Panjab, United Koreans in Japan. Europe - South Ossetia, Western Armenia, Kernow, Parishes of Jersey, Karpatalya. North America - Cascadia, Oceania, Australian First Nations. South America - Mapuche. Global ticket - Chagos Islands.

More information about the qualification system and how the 16 teams qualified will be released by CONIFA in due course.