By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
  1. David Bolt

    David Bolt Member

    May 30, 2008
    Liverpool
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Wales

    The Other World Cup

    By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
    [​IMG]

    As the major leagues of European football have drawn to a close for the summer, football fans all over the world will now switch their focus to international football.

    But, between now and the World Cup in Russia, there is another tournament that is fully deserving of your attention, because on Thursday, the 2018 CONIFA World Football Cup begins in London and runs till June 9th.

    This is the third World Football Cup and is the biggest one so far. 16 teams have qualified to take part, with every continent except South America represented by at least one team.

    CONIFA (Confederation of Independent Football Associations) is the governing body for football in unrecognised nations. They serve to correct a flaw in international football, which is what happens to players from unrecognised nations?

    If you look at a map of the world, it’s full of borders that have been defined through warfare, politics or some other arbitrary reason. But all over the world there are people who have a separate, distinct identity that either doesn’t fit with the country they’ve found themselves in, or one that transcends a recognised border.

    Footballers in those circumstances have the choice to either represent a country that they feel no affinity to, or possibly discriminates against them and people like them, or they can just stop dreaming of playing international football.

    As CONIFA General Secretary Sascha Duerkop puts it, the main goal of CONIFA is to “give football outsiders overseen by FIFA or left behind by their mother country FA the chance to win their place on a global stage and advance football-wise and personally... We give them the chance to play for the entity they feel part of in the bottom of their hearts.”

    The tournament host nation is Barawa, a region of Southern Somalia. Barawa’s FA is based, and was set up, in London, where there is a Somali Diaspora, which means that London is the host city.

    Putting on a tournament is a massive challenge for CONIFA. They are a million miles away from FIFA financially. They are a voluntary organisation, so have a really tight budget.

    ConIFA make it clear that they are all about football, not politics. Duerkop says “We do not judge if our members deserve political independence. We want to put them all on the world map by showing their members and people to the world and give them the chance to represent themselves

    This apolitical approach has cost CONIFA financially; but they feel it is a price worth paying as the principle is so important. They missed out on sponsorship from a major Chinese company because Tibet are playing in the tournament. Some stadium owners belonging to London’s Greek or Greek-Cypriot community refused to allow CONIFA to host games in their stadiums because Northern (Turkish) Cyprus will be playing.

    Instead of having stadiums bidding to be chosen, CONIFA has had to go out and secure the 11 stadiums this tournament will be played in, which are mostly the grounds of non-league clubs in the Greater London area. CONIFA were determined to pick stadiums whose owners bought into their ethos, rather than just saw it as a money-making opportunity.

    CONIFA have secured a major sponsor for this tournament in Irish Bookmaker Paddy Power, but that doesn’t mean that they have the money to pay for teams to come over. The teams are all paying their own way. Some have found sponsors, but many others have had to hold fundraising events and rely on crowdfunding to be able to get to the UK.

    Some of those have been quite creative. Matabeleland, a region of Zimbabwe, held a crowdfunding campaign where donors could get an opportunity to train with the team, or lower-level donors could receive a 100 million-dollar note, one of the notes Zimbabwe’s former currency had during its hyperinflation days.

    Not all the teams have been able to make it. Earlier this year, Kiribati couldn’t raise the required funds, so have dropped out and been replaced by fellow Pacific island nation Tuvalu. A few weeks ago Felvidek, the Hungarian community in Slovakia dropped out and were replaced by Karpatalya, a region of Ukraine.

    Even with the money raised, teams won’t be heading over to go to luxury training camps as the teams in Russia will. Instead, many of the teams will be staying in the dorms of a North London University.

    There is also a problem for some teams of getting visas. Unlike in previous tournaments, the problem isn’t with the host, but in this case, there’s some teams that have concerns they will not be allowed to leave their country to compete.

    Kabylia is a region of Algeria, with a large Berber population. There is a huge Kabylian diaspora in France; its members include a certain Zinedine Zidane. Unfortunately, the Kabylia team have faced intimidation by the Algerian state and CONIFA took the decision to delay publishing their squad for fear the players wouldn’t have been allowed to leave.

    There will be a North American interest in the tournament, as Cascadia will be there. For those who don’t know, which included me, Cascadia is a bioregion encompassing the Pacific Northwest, who consider themselves to be connected culturally and environmentally to each other than the rest of the US and Canada. Cascadia will be captained by former New England Revolution and Seattle Sounders defender James Riley.

    [​IMG]

    The tournament sees the 16 teams put into groups of 4, with the top 2 of each group advancing to the quarter finals and so on.

    What is slightly different is that when a team is knocked out of the tournament, they still have games to play because every team is playing for a place from 1st to 16th. Every team will play at least 6 games in the tournament and will be playing games up to the final day, which means that no team will have raised thousands in order to play, only to then be sent home after a few days.

    Group A contains the hosts Barawa, Cascadia, Ellen Vannin (the Isle of Man, an island between England and Ireland) and Tamil Eelam, a team representing the Tamil Diaspora around the world. The Barawa v Tamil Eelam game on Thursday evening will also feature the opening ceremony and will be refereed by well-known English referee Mark Clattenburg.

    Group B sees defending champions Abkhazia, a republic which broke away from Georgia; Northern Cyprus, who, thanks to the large Turkish community in London, will be very well supported. The group is completed by Karpatalya and Tibet.

    Group C contains Padania, which is the northern regions of Italy; Tuvalu, Matabeleland and Szekely Land, which is the Hungarian community of Romania.

    Group D sees Panjab, who represent the 120m or so people living in the Punjab states of India and Pakistan and who looked very good in a recent friendly against Liverpool’s u23 team; Kabylia, Western Armenia (which historically was in what is now Eastern Turkey), who won a game 12-0 in the 2016 tournament and United Koreans of Japan, who represent the Korean community of Japan. United Koreans of Japan are coached by defensive midfielder An Yong-Hak, who will become the first player to have played in both the FIFA and CONIFA World Cups, having played for North Korea in the 2010 World Cup.

    What makes this tournament especially fun is that nobody really knows who’s going to win. Some of the teams have admitted they know little about their opponents so don’t know what to expect. At the last competition in 2016, teams admitted that they were taken by surprise by the standard of some of the teams competing and it made them go away and take things more seriously.

    This tournament will feature of trial of green cards; which will be shown for acts of dissent or unsportsmanlike behaviour –including diving- towards referees and opponents. The idea is that this acts as a bridge between a yellow and red card. Any player shown the green card must be substituted by their team immediately, so it is the individual player, not the whole team who suffers and the recipient can be punished without missing further games through suspension.

    Few of the teams competing have a chance of ever gaining FIFA membership. To join FIFA a country must be recognised internationally; and politics prevents that for a lot of the teams. So this tournament is their chance to see their nation represented and their stories told on a global stage.

    In conjunction with the tournament, CONIFA are also hosting a film festival, which will feature documentaries about the competing countries and other CONIFA members, which is free for match ticket holders and will further promote understanding about the countries taking part.

    I’m really looking forward to this tournament, and can’t wait to get down to London to see a few games. If you’re going to be in the London area, then there are still tickets available. If you can’t make it, then the games will be streamed via social media if you want to check them out.

    The CONIFA World Football Cup promises to be a great tournament. It will be an antidote to the over-priced, overhyped and over-commercialised football that we get served. The competing teams are mostly playing for the honour and joy of representing their nation and their passion for the game, which is what football should be about.

    CONIFA have filled a gap in international football. They have found a way to represent the unrepresented. They seem to be going from strength to strength and hopefully this tournament gets the recognition that it deserves.
     
    GreenRaver, locoxriver, Skuzzy and 7 others repped this.

Comments

Discussion in 'The Beautiful Game' started by David Bolt, May 28, 2018.

    1. Theopisa

      Theopisa Member+

      Pisa Sporting Club
      Italy
      Oct 7, 2008
      Venezia
      Club:
      Pisa Calcio
      Nat'l Team:
      Italy

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Great article. I knew about CONIFA but I was unaware that the WC was going to be now.
       
    2. Three and Three

      Three and Three Member+

      Sep 13, 2015
      Club:
      New England Revolution

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Cascadia? Come on, huh?
       
      Sactown Soccer repped this.
    3. elonpuckhog

      elonpuckhog Member

      Dec 29, 2009

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Are these games on TV?
       
    4. David Bolt

      David Bolt Member

      May 30, 2008
      Liverpool
      Club:
      Liverpool FC
      Nat'l Team:
      Wales

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Don't think they'll be on TV, but they will be streamed on mycujoo and via Paddy Power's social media.

      I'm sure CONIFA can direct you through their Twitter.

      Hope that helps
       
    5. Justin O

      Justin O Member+

      Seattle Sounders
      United States
      Nov 30, 1998
      on the run from the covid
      Club:
      Seattle

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      They seem to be really pushing the definition of "unrecognized nations" this time around. For one example, from what I can tell Barawa is just a city in Somalia, with no pretense to aspire to independent nationhood. I could be wrong about that of course, but that's all I have been able to ascertain.

      And I think it is a stretch to say that James Riley, born in Colorado, had "the choice to either represent a country that they feel no affinity to, or possibly discriminates against them and people like them, or they can just stop dreaming of playing international football."

      Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the tournament! But this time around it feels a little more like a lot of random regions are participating, rather than places/communities that fit the stated purpose of the tournament.
       
      Ismitje repped this.
    6. Football_Lover_Engr

      Football_Lover_Engr New Member

      Real Madrid
      Portugal
      May 30, 2018

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Good Artilce
       
    7. GreenRaver

      GreenRaver Member

      Seattle Sounders FC
      May 31, 2018
      Bothell, Cascadia
      Nat'l Team:
      Qatar

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Yes, Cascadia. See also @yescascadia



      Cascadia National Anthem
       
    8. GreenRaver

      GreenRaver Member

      Seattle Sounders FC
      May 31, 2018
      Bothell, Cascadia
      Nat'l Team:
      Qatar

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      It's not just about unrecognized nations but also peoples. Example: United Koreans in Japan. Also regions like Padania and Yorkshire are in.
      Not a stretch at all. It's not like everyone who plays for the US was born in the US.

      I read somewhere that Cascadia's eligibility requirements are that a player either has had to have been born in Cascadia, have family from Cascadia including, married to a Cascadian or has to have played I think a minimum of 3 years either professionally or collegiately or combination of both. Riley and his mother have lived and worked here long enough, additionally I believe his wife is Cascadian but I'm not 100% sure. I know Montero's is.

      The stated purpose for the tournament is that it is open to unrecognized nations, defacto nations, regions, minority populations and diaspora. There's quite a range. You have teams like Tibet and Tuvalu and Matabeleland and others like Monaco, Padania and Quebec. Cascadia isn't out of place at all.

      I'm happy for Riley, good guy, humanitarian and a leader on a team with a lot of young talent. Good ambassador for the region.

      SkySports did a piece on him yesterday: http://www.skysports.com/football/n...ready-for-conifa-world-football-cup-challenge

      ConIFA seem very happy to have Cascadia involved as its first North American team (Quebec bailed on them a couple years ago.) They help make it a truly World Cup. They have stated they'd like it if some of the First Nations peoples or California or Texas created FAs to join. There's even a North American director based in Cascadia. More here: http://www.conifa.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/CONIFA-Activity-Report-2017.pdf
       
    9. Justin O

      Justin O Member+

      Seattle Sounders
      United States
      Nov 30, 1998
      on the run from the covid
      Club:
      Seattle

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Not sure what this has to do with what I wrote.

      I am not questioning his ties to the region. Just pointing out that I am highly skeptical that he is motivated by the fact that previously his only option to play international soccer would have been to represent the USA, a country to which he feels no affinity for. (as stated in the article) In fact, I am guessing he would have been thrilled with a US national team call up. Very different than, for example, a Kurd who objects to representing Iraq out of principle for political reasons.

      I did not say Cascadia was out of place. It is, after all a real secessionist movement in a small number of people's eyes. Barawa is the one I questioned. Plus Tuvalu, Kiribati, Monaco are, for example, fully recognized countries. Moreover, while I could be wrong about Hungarian citizenship policy, I am guessing an ethnic Hungarian living in Slovakia actually has the choice of playing for either Hungary or Slovakia. So not only are they not shut out of international football, they actually have more options than most.

      None of this is meant as criticism of the tournament. I am just pointing out that these days it is more a tournament of regions, minorities and small countries rather than a tournament of unrecognized nations for people shut out of international football, which is my understanding of how it started.

      Anyway, none of it really matters. It's just that separatism, ethnic minorities and isolated regions tends to be my thing, both academically and professionally. As such I tend to geek out over it.
       
      Ismitje repped this.
    10. Three and Three

      Three and Three Member+

      Sep 13, 2015
      Club:
      New England Revolution

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      I'd rather not. Thanks just the same.
       
    11. scott47a

      scott47a Member+

      Seattle Sounders FC; Arsenal FC
      Feb 6, 2007
      Austin, Texas
      Club:
      Seattle Sounders
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Free your mind, man.
       
    12. GreenRaver

      GreenRaver Member

      Seattle Sounders FC
      May 31, 2018
      Bothell, Cascadia
      Nat'l Team:
      Qatar
      #13 GreenRaver, Jun 1, 2018
      Last edited: Jun 1, 2018

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Given the current situation with the man in the White House and the policies of the US government under his administration I can think of a lot of reasons a Cascadian wouldn't want to represent the US.

      Ok then, I misunderstood. Barawa's team exists because it is made up of Somali diaspora who want to bring attention to the cause of the Bravanese and their plight with regards to on going issues with Al-Shabab

      While I can not pretend to speak for them I suspect it is similar to some of the other minority population teams. Often there are policies (official or unofficial) preventing them from playing for either team so they become "sports isolated" as the eligibility rules may for instance prevent Hungarians born in Slovakia from representing Hungary and Slovakia might have an unofficial policy to not select anyone who is Hungarian. Again, I am not saying that's the situation but that kind of thing can occur. I mean you could make the same argument about Tibet. In theory they could play for China or India but for obvious reasons they don't. CONIFA has said its not about lines on a map, it's about PEOPLE their identity. CONIFA asks them who they are. FIFA tells them who they are.

      Well then you must have misunderstood how CONIFA started. It was always an organization of regions and peoples as much as nations.

      http://www.playthegame.org/news/news-articles/2015/0020_non-fifa-football-in-quarrel/

      That's cool.
       
    13. winster

      winster Member

      Jul 7, 2008
      Club:
      Besiktas JK
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      "or they can just stop dreaming of playing international football."

      Yeah, let's do that.

      I used to think the CONIFA and VIVA World Cups were cool, and by "used to" I mean when I was still technically a child.

      The tournament has over-expanded (and probably always was overexpanded) including ridiculous places like Padania and Cascadia. Sure there used to be an independence movement in Padania and it has a distinct identity compared to Rome and southern Italy. However, Padanians seem plenty happy voting for populist Italian parties and whatever independence movement used to exist is basically dead...and Cascadia, really?

      If this was just a tournament of:
      a: actual countries (like Tuvalu and Kiribati) that FIFA doesn't want for whatever reason,
      b: "countries" where people are subject to functionally independent, but internationally unrecognized governments (like North Cyprus and Abhkazia),
      c: and places that are fully integrated into a larger country, but are so geographically isolated that they are effectively football deprived (like Greenland or even the Isle of Mann),
      ....then I would be all about this tournament.

      However, as it stands I'm pretty sure I could get a bunch of my high school budies, start a federation for my US county and get admitted into CONIFA, if not outright qualify for the 2018 world tournament. We'd probably get creamed at the actual tournament, but that's about the level of seriousness it takes to join.
       
      Ismitje repped this.
    14. GreenRaver

      GreenRaver Member

      Seattle Sounders FC
      May 31, 2018
      Bothell, Cascadia
      Nat'l Team:
      Qatar
      #15 GreenRaver, Jun 4, 2018
      Last edited: Jun 4, 2018

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      You come off as a child insulting the organization, tournament and everyone from CNN to the BBC Skysports who have covered it. Your dismissal ignores both historical facts and political realities as well as the constitution of CONIFA. And who cares if you care about the tournament? Clearly plenty of people do and you do NOT get to decide who gets to play international football and who doesn't.

      Over-expanded? Both Padania and Cascadia were FOUNDING MEMBERS of ConIFA. Clearly you don't know what you're talking about here.

      According to who? Not to the Padanians.

      Remedial history lesson below.
      Well you would be wrong. But hey, why bother researching a topic by going to CONIFA.org and reading their published guidelines when you can just fire off an ignorant response.

      You might start by reading the CONIFA Constitution:

      http://www.conifa.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/CONIFA-Constitution-ver-201711.pdf

      There are 10 criteria an FA has to fulfill to join CONIFA. It's why joke micronations like Sealand or Asgardia are not in it.

      One of those 10 points has to do with history and culture. That's one reason why Yorkshire, Quebec and Cascadia are in. Cascadia from the 1700s-to late 1800s was known as the Oregon Territory and shared a border with the US, Canada and Mexico (today California):

      https://www.loc.gov/item/2004627252
      [​IMG]

      That map is basically modern day Cascadia. See also "54-40 or Fight".

      Even before that map, First Nations peoples of the region had a similar map of ancient Cascadia.

      Why? Because it's based on nature and natural boundaries. It's about place. You should read the book "Towards Cascadia" to educate yourself. Additionally the region has been a distinct culture even before Europeans settled here. Our reverence for the environment is not some new thing but goes back centuries to the ties with the First Nations peoples who live here.

      In 2011 Time Magazine published an article entitled "Top 10 Aspiring Nations".

      http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2041365,00.html

      On that list:

      Of that list 8 are full members of CONIFA, 9 play regular non-FIFA football and 1 (Scotland) is a FIFA member. Only Vermont is missing.

      The Cascadia independence movement regardless of what you think about it has been a thing longer than MLS has been around and before the NASL. Cascadian English has been a thing longer than you or I have been alive and the cultural differences of our region show up on every socio-political map and have for years.

      If you ask most Cascadians they will tell you they have more in common with each other than with Ottawa or Washington, DC. The same can be said in Quebec. The same can be said in Yorkshire with regards to London. That's why we are all in CONIFA we are Cascadians, Quebecois, Yorkies, and so on.

      Do some reading, educate yourself: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cascadia_(independence_movement)

      CONIFA is about identity. Outsiders telling a nation, region or people their identity should be different than how they identify is literally WHY CONIFA exists.

      But you can only understand some lines on a map. A simplified, middle school understanding of geopolitics, history and culture.
       
    15. GreenRaver

      GreenRaver Member

      Seattle Sounders FC
      May 31, 2018
      Bothell, Cascadia
      Nat'l Team:
      Qatar
      #16 GreenRaver, Jun 4, 2018
      Last edited: Jun 4, 2018

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      By the way getting back to football. Cascadia are through to the Quarterfinals after thumping Tamil Eelam 6-0 effectively knocking the Isle of Man out of the competition. Isle of Man were expected to win the group but they, hosts Barawa and Cascadia were level on 6 points. Cascadia needed to make up goal difference needing at least 5 goals to advance to the quarterfinals before the game kicked off. They didn't disappoint:


      https://www.prostamerika.com/2018/06/03/cascadia-v-tamil-eelam/186354/

      Cascadia next take on Karpatalya on Tuesday at 10:00 Cascadia time or 18:00 BST in London.


      More on the tournament here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_ConIFA_World_Football_Cup

      And James Riley's involvement here:
      http://skysports.com/football/news/...ready-for-conifa-world-football-cup-challenge
      https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/05/24/james-riley-mls-conifa-world-football-cup-cascadia
       
    16. winster

      winster Member

      Jul 7, 2008
      Club:
      Besiktas JK
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      I just looked up the 10 internal regulations for CONIFA membership (they weren't in the link GreenRaver provided). The criteria are a little more serious than I expected, but still very, very wide...wide enough to be functionally useless.

      Criteria #7 alone opens up the door for over 100 possible CONIFA members (seriously, they're using a tourism advocacy group to define nationhood) and criteria #8 opens up roughly 110 members. Criteria 10 opens the door for a literally unlimited number of other possible language/minority combinations. Are you a part of a city where some number of people speak "Creoles and pidgins, or an English based" language? Then you can have a CONIFA team. I suspect this is how Cascadia got admitted into CONIFA, because none of the other criteria fit.

      Prospective members need to meet one of these 10 criteria:

      1.
      The Football Association is a member of one of the six continental confederations of FIFA.

      2. The entity represented by the Football Association is a member of the IOC.

      3. The entity represented by the Football Association is a member of one of the member federations of ARISF.

      4. The entity represented by the Football Association is in possession of an ISO country code

      5. The entity represented by the Football Association is a de-facto independent territory.

      6. The entity represented by the Football Association is included on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories.

      7. The entity represented by the Football Association is included in directory of countries and territories of the TCC.

      8. The entity represented by the Football Association is a member of UNPO and/or FUEN.

      9. The entity represented by the Football Association is a minority included in the World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples.

      10. The entity represented by the Football Association is a linguistic minority, the language of which is included on the ISO 639.2 list.
       
    17. GreenRaver

      GreenRaver Member

      Seattle Sounders FC
      May 31, 2018
      Bothell, Cascadia
      Nat'l Team:
      Qatar

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Inside story on the locker room talk at half time yesterday when they needed to score 4 goals to go through:

       
    18. GreenRaver

      GreenRaver Member

      Seattle Sounders FC
      May 31, 2018
      Bothell, Cascadia
      Nat'l Team:
      Qatar

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      You keep saying "got admitted into CONIFA" what part of "Cascadia Football was a founding member association of CONIFA" do you not understand?
       
    19. GreenRaver

      GreenRaver Member

      Seattle Sounders FC
      May 31, 2018
      Bothell, Cascadia
      Nat'l Team:
      Qatar

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
       
    20. winster

      winster Member

      Jul 7, 2008
      Club:
      Besiktas JK
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      So, the standards to join (enter? establish? self-realize?..I'm really not sure what the technical term is to join something as a founding member if "admit" doesn't work) were different for founding members than they are for current prospective members?

      Apparently Cascadia aren't a full member anyways. The Cascadia Federation's website says they are a "provisional member," but then the CONIFA website just lists them as a "member." So, I guess I'll just take your word that they are a "founding member." Although, I am certain Cascadia were not a founding member of the NF Board, CONIFA's predecessor.

      None of this pedantic quibbling over definitions takes away the fact that having "nations" like Cascadia in the CONIFA World Football Cup detracts from the seriousness of the event. Cascadia isn't bringing anywhere close to the best "Cascadian" players and several of Cascadia's players don't exactly have deep roots in the region. Cascadia's presence also demeans some of the "nations" that really do aspire to have their own country (Abkhazia, Northern Cyprus) or who face serious discrimination and repression at home (Tibet and others).

      ...and before you re-hash how Cascadia has an independence movement and distinct culture and all of that...If the majority of people in your parent country (in this case the US and Canada) have no idea that you have and independence movement and can only name "coffee" and "tech" when thinking about your culture, then you don't have a serious independence movement and probably don't have a truly distinct culture either.
       
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    21. GreenRaver

      GreenRaver Member

      Seattle Sounders FC
      May 31, 2018
      Bothell, Cascadia
      Nat'l Team:
      Qatar
      #22 GreenRaver, Jun 5, 2018
      Last edited: Jun 5, 2018

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      They were a provisional member of the old N.F.-Board so this is likely a "Replace N.F.-Board with CONIFA" error.


      You don't have to take my word. Ask the CONIFA General Secretary, Sascha Duerkop who by the way prior to his ascent up the ladder of non-FIFA football was a shirt collector and was Cascadia's representative at the N.F.-Board meeting where Cascadia was unanimously voted in by the other members.

      There's even a picture of him here:
      [​IMG]
      Photo from: https://goalwa.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/in-the-18-cascadia-pride/

      Nope, but that's not what we're talking about. The N.F.-Board is dead. We're talking about CONIFA. But if you DO want to talk about the N.F.-Board they sent one of their representatives to Cascadia on a fact finding tour. Here is a picture of him with the Cascadia Association Football Federation (bottom right):
      [​IMG]

      His synopsis is that we should be admitted to the N.F.-Board on the basis of Cascadia being a distinct culture and bioregion.

      It's not pedantic. You just seem caught up on the "nations" thing when CONIFA itself states from the outset they are about more than recognized or unrecognized nations.

      That's your biased opinion. One not shared by the other CONIFA members nor the media who have covered Cascadia. It's because YOU don't consider Cascadia a serious independence movement that you have a problem. This despite people receiving death threats for advancing the cause. How about you ask THEM and their families how serious they are: http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-n...f/2016/11/group_that_created_proposed_or.html


      Most peoples and regions in the tournament do not have access to the best players from their region. Otherwise we'd have Mario Ballotelli suiting up for Padania, Zidane for Kabylia, etc. So your ignorance of the tournament and CONIFA is showing again. Well it has this whole time but I digress.


      Again, YOUR opinion. That has never been expressed by ANY CONIFA member FA and in fact quite the opposite happened over drinks in London. The Abkhazians quite like us Cascadians:

      https://cascadiaunderground.org/a-toast-around-a-table-unites-around-the-globe/

      You have NO idea what this tournament is all about so I urge you to read that article and learn a bit more about it and Cascadia before you froth off out of ignorance again.

      Again, your opinion does not equal fact.

      There have been plenty of articles written about Cascadia in mainstream US and Canadian media inside and outside of Cascadia in both the US and Canada.
      http://www.seattleweekly.com/arts/a-bioregional-declaration-of-interdependence/
      https://www.ozy.com/2016/how-the-west-coast-could-dump-trump/74001
      https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...-if-the-pacific-northwest-was-its-own-country

      The Canadian Broadcasting Company's news even did a segment on it (prior to the 2016 US election):




      The fact is sociologists, political scientists, linguists and the other members of CONIFA recognize we have a distinct culture and have for a long time.

      By the way, you are hardly original, the same B.S. arguments you offer have been used against Padania, Yorkshire, Nice, even the Isle of Man by their detractors, but from within CONIFA and the football community they have all been welcomed and supported.

      And since when has it EVER mattered if the majority of the oppressor recognizes the oppressed's movement. Never. All that matters is plenty of CASCADIANS understand that we have a team which represents OUR REGION and OUR VALUES.





      Your opinion means nothing to me.
       
    22. GreenRaver

      GreenRaver Member

      Seattle Sounders FC
      May 31, 2018
      Bothell, Cascadia
      Nat'l Team:
      Qatar

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
       
    23. Potowmack

      Potowmack Member+

      Apr 2, 2010
      Washington, DC
      Club:
      DC United
      Nat'l Team:
      United States

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Because when I think “oppressed” I think of yuppie Sounders fans.

      You’re like a parody of a Portlandia character.
       
      Ismitje repped this.
    24. GreenRaver

      GreenRaver Member

      Seattle Sounders FC
      May 31, 2018
      Bothell, Cascadia
      Nat'l Team:
      Qatar

      The Other World Cup

      By David Bolt on May 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM
      Making assumptions about or attacking our (or anyone's identity) only serves to solidify it.

      I'd point you to this academic work, as mentioned here with regards to Cascadia but it would go over your head.
       

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