Viva World Cup

Viva World Cup

Founded	2006
Region	International (NF-Board)
Current champions	Padania
Most successful team	Padania (3 titles)
2010 VIVA World Cup

The VIVA World Cup is an international football tournament organized by the New Federation Board, an umbrella association for nations unaffiliated with FIFA, planned to be held every two years.

History

Early Years

Inauguration

In April 2005, the NF-Board announced that Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus had been chosen to host the inaugural VIVA World Cup, having successfully hosted a tournament to celebrate 50 years of the KTFF, called KTFF 50th Anniversary Cup, featuring fellow NF-Board member Sápmi and FIFA-unaffiliated Kosovo. The NF-Board hoped that sixteen teams would take part, drawn from across its membership.

Controversy

In the Spring of 2005, a new government was elected in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, keen to foster relations with other nations. The NF-Board claim that the government of Ferdi Sabit Soyer insisted on restricting which nations could and could not take part in order to head off potential political arguments. For their part, the KTFF claim that the NF-Board made unreasonable financial demands.^[1]

The upshot of this was that the NF-Board decided to grant the hosting rights for the tournament to Occitania. In response, the KTFF announced that they would hold their own tournament, the ELF Cup, scheduled for the same time as the VIVA World Cup. Some NF-Board members accepted the invitations to take part in the ELF Cup.

Occitania 2006

Occitania announced that the tournament would still be held between the 19th and the 25th of November 2006, with games played at the in and around Hyères les Palmiers, near Toulon. The number of entrants was downsized to eight, in anticipation of the ELF Cup (which agreed to pay expenses) drawing NF-Board members away from the VIVA World Cup.

However, a lack of suitable competitors meant that the tournament was to include six teams: Monaco, the Romani, the Sápmi, Southern Cameroons, West Papua, and the hosts.

However, the failure of West Papua and Southern Cameroon to attend the NF-Board General Assembly in September 2006, and logistical problems facing the Roma ^[2], threw new doubt on the tournament, which looked as though it may go ahead with just three teams.

Southern Cameroons agreed to send a team, and four teams - twelve fewer than initially hoped for - were set to contest the title; unfortunately, they were unable to take part because of visa problems, resulting in walkovers in all their games.

By the end of the week, Sápmi had triumphed, scoring 45 goals in their four games, and lifting the first VIVA World Cup trophy, destroying Monaco 21-1 in the final.

Sápmi 2008

The second VIVA World Cup were played in the Swedish town of Gällivare in Sápmi from 7 to 13 July 2008. The matches were played under the midnight sun. Twelve teams had shown an interest in participating in the men's tournament; however, five teams took part, and Padania emerged as winners beating the Aramean team 2-0. The host, Sápmi, finished in third place.

The women's tournament had only two teams, was won by the host, Sapmi, ahead of Kurdistan.

Championship Every Year

Three FA candidates made presentations proposing to host the VIVA World Cup 2010: Padania FA, Kurdistan FA and Gozo FA. In the General Meeting it was decided to hold the competition every year.

Padania 2009

Padania was the host for the 2009 edition. The tournament was played in some important stadiums in northern Italy. The final was held in Verona on June 27, 2009, and saw Padania retain the title, defeating Iraqi Kurdistan 2-0.

Gozo 2010

The Gozitans will host the next tournament at the newly re-furbished artificial turf ground of 2009-10 Champions Sannat Lions, as well as the 4,000 capacity Gozo Stadium in Xewkija. From May 31st to June 6th, teams from Padania, Kurdistan, Provence, Occitania. Lapland, and a further two to be confirmed by the NF-Board will compete for the Nelson Mandela Trophy. The Female tournament still has to be confirmed.^[3] The Tibet national football team is looking for sponsors to participate to the VIVA World Cup 2010.^[4]

Tournament every other year

In December 2009, the NF-Board came to an agreement with the Island Games Association that the VIVA World Cup would be held alternately with the Island Games in a deal that would see the IGA assist to the NF-Board in its attempts to provide competition for its members and potential members. As a result of this agreement, the fifth VIVA World Cup was awarded to Kurdistan, to take place in 2012.^[5]

Tournament results

Year	Host	Final			Third Place Match
		Winner	Score	Runner-up	3rd Place	Score	4th Place
2006 Details	Occitania	Sápmi	21–1	Monaco	Occitania	w/o	Southern Cameroons
2008 Details	Sápmi	Padania	2–0	Arameans Suryoye	Sápmi	3–1	Kurdistan
2009 Details	Padania	Padania	2–0	Kurdistan	Sápmi	4–4 (5 - 4) ps	Provence
2010 Details	Gozo	Padania	1–0	Kurdistan	Occitania	2–0	Two Sicilies
2012 Details	Kurdistan

^ Withdrew before the start of the tournament due to visa problems.

Trophy

An artist's impression of the Nelson Mandela Trophy.

The VIVA World Cup Trophy was designed by French sculptor Gérard Pigault, and will be named The Nelson Mandela Trophy, in honour of the former South African president.^[6]

Titles

• 3  Padania
• 1  Sápmi

Participating nations

Team	2006	2008	2009	2010	2012	Years
Arameans Suryoye		2nd				1
Gozo			6th	5th		2
Iraqi Kurdistan		4th	2nd	2nd	q	4
Monaco	2nd					1
Occitania	3rd		5th	3rd		3
Padania		1st	1st	1st		3
Provence		5th	4th	6th		3
Sápmi	1st	3rd	3rd			3
Southern Cameroons	4th					1
Two Sicilies				4th		1
Total	4	5	6	6

Legend

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
•     — Hosts

Topscorers

Year	Player	Goals
2006	Erik Lamøy Tom Høgli Steffen Nystrøm	6
2008	Stefano Salandra Giordan Ligarotti	4
2009	Svein Ove Thomassen Ennys Hammoud	5
2010	Shwan Mamu	4

See also

• ELF Cup
• UNPO Cup
• FIFI Wild Cup
• KTFF 50th Anniversary Cup
• Non-FIFA football
• Women's Viva World Cup

Notes

1. ^ "Worlds apart". World Soccer Magazine: p. 105. October 2006. 
2. ^ (Occitan) "The VIVA World Cup remains in question!". l’Associacion Occitana de Fotbòl official website. http://www.a-o-f.org/accueil/article.php3?id_article=113. Retrieved October 30, 2006. 
3. ^ Are You Looking Forward to The World Cup?: The Last Defender Football From Another Angle
4. ^ FOOT - Thierry Marcadé who was one of the 4 Founders of the NFB in 2003, was received on December 31st, 2009 by the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala (India), Headquarters of the Tibetan Government in Exile
5. ^ Viva World Cup 2012
6. ^ "NF-Board Opens Registrations for the 1st Viva World Cup in Northern Cyprus". July 1, 2005. 

External links

• Official Site
• Official forum
• [1]