Towards a Cascadian Football Federation and the 2016 VIVA World Cup
For fans of football from around the Pacific Northwest, there is now an organizational push for the establishment of a Cascadian Soccer Federation, created jointly through the efforts of fans from the Vancouver Whitecaps, Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers, and with the potential of supporting regional teams, awareness, charities and eventually fielding a Cascadian national team at the VIVA world cup (for federations not officially recognized by FIFA) in 2014 or 2016.
To begin, federation organizers are investigating the steps necessary to form an official Cascadia Association Football Federation as a 501(c) nonprofit organization for the purposes of participating in friendlies and competitions as part of the NF-Board. The NF-Board is an organization founded in Brussels in December of 2003 that is similar to FIFA, the primary organization which governs football/soccer worldwide. As such, the NF-Board governs new federations belonging to several categories which are not recognized by or affiliated with FIFA : Peoples, Nations, Minorities and Isolated Territories populations. The NF-Board’s primary aim is to organize international football games, regardless of political or religious factors. It is not opposed to FIFA but rather complementary to it. It sees itself both as a “waiting room” for new nations wishing to become part of FIFA and a home for micronations, communities and peoples not officially recognized or represented in international football.
Every two years the NF-Board organizes the VIVA World Cup, which one of its 27 member Football Associations (FAs) hosts. Cascadia as a distinct cultural entity, bioregion and growing social movement with common interests across international lines can and should be represented in the sport which we in Cascadia are passionate about; football connects us to other similar communities, cultures and peoples around the globe, and can be a great way to help foster a sense of place and regional identity.
For that reason the organizers’ aim is a simple one: To have Cascadia participate as a member FA in the 2014 or 2016 VIVA World Cup.
Those interested can read the full letter of incorporation below, or get involved by contacting organizers on twitter @CascadiaSoccer or at cascadiafootball@gmail.com.
