| Founded | 2006 |
|---|---|
| Region | International (N.F.-Board) |
| Current champions |  Kurdistan Region (2012) |
| Most championships |  Padania(3 titles) |
| Website | nfbwebsite |
TheViva World Cup is an international association football tournament organized by theN.F.-Board, an umbrella association for teamsunaffiliated with FIFA, held five times between 2006 and 2012.[1]
Men's Viva World Cup
Euro Viva Cup
Mixed Viva World CupThe oldest precedent of the Viva World Cup was theAlternative Worldwide Cup of 1988, developed in Jordan.[citation needed]
In April 2005, the NF-Board announced that theTurkish Republic of Northern Cyprus had been chosen to host the inaugural Viva World Cup, having successfully hosted theKTFF 50th Anniversary Cup, a tournament to celebrate 50 years of theCyprus Turkish Football Federation, featuring fellow NF-Board memberSápmi and FIFA-unaffiliatedKosovo. The NF-Board hoped that sixteen teams would take part, drawn from across its membership.
In spring 2005, the new government elected in theCyprus Turkish Football Federation (KTFF) was keen to foster relations with other nations. The NF-Board claim that the government ofFerdi Sabit Soyer insisted on restricting which teams 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.[2]
The upshot of this was that the NF-Board decided to grant the hosting rights for the tournament toOccitania. In response, the KTFF announced that they would hold their own tournament, theELF 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 announced that the tournament would still be held on 19–25 November 2006, with games played in and aroundHyères les Palmiers, nearToulon. The number of entrants was reduced to eight, in anticipation of the ELF Cup (which agreed to pay expenses) drawing NF-Board members away from the Viva World Cup. A lack of suitable competitors meant that the tournament was to include six teams:Monaco, theRomani, theSápmi,Southern Cameroons,West Papua, and theOccitania national football teams.
However, the failure of West Papua and Southern Cameroon to attend the NF-Board General Assembly in September 2006, and logistical problems facing the Romani, threw new doubt on the tournament, which looked as though it might go ahead with just three teams. Four teams - twelve fewer than initially hoped for - were set to take part when Southern Cameroons agreed to send a team; unfortunately, they were unable to take part because ofvisa problems, resulting in walkovers in all their games. By the end of the week, Sápmi had triumphed, scoring 42 goals in their three games, and lifting the first Viva World Cup trophy, destroying Monaco 21–1 in the final.
The secondViva World Cup was played in the Swedish town ofGällivare inSápmi from 7 to 13 July 2008. The matches were played under themidnight sun. Twelve teams had expressed an interest in participating in the men's tournament; however, only 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 only had two teams, and the host,Sapmi, beatKurdistan 15-1 over two legs.
Padania was the host for the 2009 edition. The tournament was played in some important stadiums in northern Italy. The final was held inVerona on June 27, 2009, and saw Padania retain the title, defeating Kurdistan 2-0.
TheGozitans hosted the tournament at the newly refurbished artificial turf ground of 2009-10 Champions Sannat Lions, as well as the 4,000 capacity Gozo Stadium in Xewkija. From May 31 to June 6, teams from Padania, Kurdistan, Provence, Occitania, Two Sicilies and Gozo competed for the Nelson Mandela Trophy. Only two teams, Gozo and Padania, took part in the women's tournament.[3] TheTibet national football team was looking for sponsors to participate to the Viva World Cup 2010[4] but failed to come.
Similar to the 2008 edition, the women's tournament only had two teams, and the host,Padania, beat the host,Gozo, 7-0 over two legs.
In December 2009, the NF-Board came to an agreement with theIsland Games Association that the Viva World Cup would be held alternately with theIsland Games in a deal that would see the IGA assist 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 toKurdistan, to take place in 2012.[5] This tournament had the most participating teams of any Non-FIFA tournament. The hosts beat Northern Cyprus in the final (the first time the latter failed to win a non-FIFA tournament in which they took part).
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There were three bids for hosting privileges for the Viva World Cup of 2014; however with each of the bids, plans broke down.
The first bidder wasSápmi in 2010 forÖstersund.[6][7] However, in 2013, Sápmi left for CONIFA, so those plans fell through.[8]
Afterwards, theIsle of Man's bid was found shortly after Sápmi's bid failed. However, the yearthey applied is unknown to us. However, the Isle of Man left the NFB for CONIFA as well; however the NFB claimed to want to restart that application again for a "pseudo European Championship" in 2015 (which, to our knowledge, never happened).[9]
The final bid was withTatarstan in 2013–2014 forKazan — where the anonymous intermediaries were requesting "improbable commission payments" in negotiations, andAndrei Rudakov (the person they were discussing with to make the tournament) had been summoned for embezzlement from theNeuchâtel Xamax Club, and "others". They cancelled the mandate, but the final nail in the coffin was "when the pseudo-organizers asked the NFB to conduct an intention-to-participate survey among its FA members and members of the non-FIFA scene". They tried to move the cup to Winter 2014, but they had ran out of time and they couldn't do so in time. So the 2014 edition of the Viva World Cup was cancelled.[10]
In 2017, after the N.F.-Board announced its return to the Non-FIFA scene,[11] on 21 May, they announced the2017 Euro Viva Cup,[a] inVichy.[12]However, on 6 December, the authorities of Vichy and Jean-Luc Kit said that the cup was cancelled, as negotiations had stalled between the two parties.[13]
On 1 February 2024, the N.F.-Board announced the 2025 Mixed Viva World Cup, which would have "both a mix of genres and a mix of rules of the game", and is said to be restricted to non-FIFA UN countries, subdivisions of countries, and transnational/indigenous people. The cup was scheduled to run from June 20–29.[14][15] However, the event was cancelled.[non-primary source needed]
On 18 January 2025, they tried again and announced 2 new Viva World Cups for 2026 and 2028, saying the 2026 Viva World Cup will be restricted to non-FIFA UN countries, and the 2028 one, to non-FIFA islands and archipelagos, however refused to disclose more detail past that point.[16][17][non-primary source needed]
| Ed. | Year | Host | First place game | Third place game | Num. teams | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Champion | Score |  Runner-up |  Third | Score | Fourth | ||||
| 1 | 2006 |  Occitania |  Sápmi | 21–1 |  Monaco | Occitania | w/o |  Southern Cameroons[fn 1] | 4 |
| 2 | 2008 |  Sápmi | Padania | 2–0 |  Arameans Suryoye | Sápmi | 3–1 | Kurdistan | 5 |
| 3 | 2009 | Padania | Padania | 2–0 | Kurdistan | Sápmi | 4–4 5–4 (p) |  Provence | 6 |
| 4 | 2010 |  Gozo | Padania | 1–0 | Kurdistan | Occitania | 2–0 |  Two Sicilies | 6 |
| 5 | 2012 | Kurdistan | Kurdistan | 2–1 |  Northern Cyprus |  Zanzibar | 7–2 | Provence | 9 |
The current Viva World Cup Trophy was designed by French sculptor Gérard Pigault in 2005, and is named TheNelson Mandela Trophy, in honour of the former South African president.[18]
| Team | 2006 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2012 | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Arameans Suryoye | 2nd | 1 | ||||
 Darfur | 9th | 1 | ||||
 Gozo | 6th | 5th | 2 | |||
 Kurdistan Region | 4th | 2nd | 2nd | 1st | 4 | |
 Monaco | 2nd | 1 | ||||
 Northern Cyprus | 2nd | 1 | ||||
 Occitania | 3rd | 5th | 3rd | 5th | 4 | |
 Padania | 1st | 1st | 1st | 3 | ||
 Provence | 5th | 4th | 6th | 4th | 4 | |
 Raetia | 8th | 1 | ||||
| Sápmi | 1st | 3rd | 3rd | 3 | ||
 Southern Cameroons | 4th | 1 | ||||
 Tamil Eelam | 7th | 1 | ||||
 Two Sicilies | 4th | 1 | ||||
 Western Sahara | 6th | 1 | ||||
 Zanzibar | 3rd | 1 | ||||
| Total | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 9 |
| Year | Player | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Eirik LamøyTom HøgliSteffen Nystrøm | 6 |
| 2008 | Stefano SalandraGiordan Ligarotti | 4 |
| 2009 | Svein ThomassenEnais Hammoud | 5 |
| 2010 | Haider Qaraman | 5 |
| 2012 | Halil TuranChristophe Copel | 6 |
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