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N.F.-Board
N.F.-Board established on 12 December 2003 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The N.F.-Board (New Football Federations-Board;[a] NFB) is a federation for football associations established on 12 December 2003.[6] The NFB is made up of teams that represent nations, dependencies, unrecognized states, minorities, stateless peoples, regions and micronations not affiliated to FIFA.
One of the founders was Luc Misson, a lawyer who represented Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman in a case that led to the Bosman ruling.[7]
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History
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Foundation
The N.F.-Board was founded on 12 December 2003 by the World Foot-Balls Observatory (French: Observatoire Mondial des Foot-Ball; OMF) in À la Mort Subite, a bar in Brussels,[8] consisting of 5 members: Northern Cyprus, Sápmi, Monaco, Western Sahara, and the Chagos Islands.[9]
When the NFB was founded, a deadline was set for applications: 15 January 2004. However, at some point, it was postponed to May, and the candidate member list ballooned to 76 members.[10] This list included the Falkland Islands, Greenland, Tibet, Guadelope, Jersey, Vatican City, Corsica, Brittany, and Catalonia.[11][12]
Many more members came to apply soon after the founding. The first known four to apply were Greenland, Tibet, and possibly Jersey,[10][13] and Guernsey.[13]
At first, the N.F.-Board had planned to host their first event, the VIVA World Cup, in 2005.[13] However, due to a lack of budget at the time, it was postponed to 2006.[14]
![[icon]](#/media/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2025) |
Early controversies
ELF Cup
In 2006, the first VIVA World Cup was initially planned in Northern Cyprus after validation of a reconnaissance visit by the management of the N.F.-Board, political changes took place in the meantime in this territory, with repercussions on the Federation of Northern Cyprus football.[15] Northern Cyprus no longer admits to receiving certain football associations, the Emergency Committee of the N.F.-Board takes the decision to cancel the edition planned there and to transfer the competition to Hyères in France.[16] In response, the Northern Cyprus Football Federation announced the organization of the ELF Cup and promised to pay the travel expenses of the participants, the competition will be won by the Northern Cyprus selection.[17]
Departure of Monaco
In 2010, the Monaco Football Association left the N.F.-Board. The captain of the selection at the time, Yohan Garino, explains: "For political reasons, we are not authorized by our government to play against certain teams. We also had some problems with the NF-Board which used photos of the Monaco Football Association and Prince Albert as advertising for their many matches without authorization. We were particularly disappointed by this last point which is very detrimental to us".[18]
Breakup of the N.F.-Board
During the Kurdistan 2012 VIVA World Cup, a large sum of money intended for the event disappeared. The Belgian tax authorities subsequently investigated. Disputes arose among the founders. At the 2013 Annual General Meeting in Munich, Christian Michelis, one of the founders of the N.F.-Board, resigned as president, but as there were still many financial irregularities in his presidency that needed investigation, the NFB did not accept. Michelis denied this, and the association subsequently suspended him.[19][20] Thus, the organizational structure collapsed, and the association existed only on paper.[20][21]
Swedish referee Per-Anders Blind, who also officiated at VIVA World Cup matches and attended the Annual General Meeting in Munich, was subsequently approached by various member associations to make a new football confederation. Blind, in response, founded the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CIFA; now CONIFA) in August 2013.[22][23][20][21] In 2024, the NFB also made the claim that Michelis had reached out to Per-Anders Blind to approve of the creation of CONIFA, shortly after his resignation.[24]
Due to the N.F.-Board's problem with organising tournaments ever since the fracture, CONIFA has been the new ruler of the Non-FIFA scene ever since.
Cease and Desist
On 17 November 2013, a cease and desist was filed against the N.F.-Board by CONIFA, for defamation by Jean Luc-Kit and the NFB's official website targeting it, on the grounds of:[25]
- The homepage of the N.F.-Board calling the renaming of its Facebook group "fraudulent confiscation".[26]
- A letter to the members published on the homepage, which says: "Worst even, some like Per Anders Blind are actually using some documents and the name of the NFB in order to redirect members to their profit."[19]
- In a mail from 14 November 2013, Jean Luc-Kit said:
ConIFA [...] lies to you and still uses on its web site the names of persons and FA againts their will. For example, the letter of support from the FA of Kurdistan which you will find enclosed with this letter. Recently, the FA Isle of Man protested. We have doubts on the legality of names used by Padania, Lapland and Quebec. The president of the legal FA Tamileelam has already protested.
- In another email from the next day (15 November 2013), Kit calls ConIFA "a group of pirates", also stating:
These pirates use wrong names on their "OrganisationChart" and wrong FAs, or they create some new illegal FA for their next supposed tournament.Hijacking our initial tournament in Östersund, they used our name to approach sponsors. They used our initial facebook Group pirating the name, they use the photos of the VIVA World Cup™ under copyright without our authorization on their propaganda.
- and in the same email, he listed that:
- Kurdistan is wrong
- Isle of Man is a pirate team
- Sápmi is probably a pirate team (we await the official information)
- Quebec? Ask the Quebec Soccer Association...
- Tamil Eelam is a pirate team - we received an official protestation from their legal president, and this group uses illegaly the official logo created during the last VIVA WC 2012 by him)
However, despite CONIFA's legal threats, it appears no action has been taken based on the aforementioned cease and desist, despite the continuation of the alleged defamation.[24]
Revival
2014 Viva World Cup
Plans for the 2014 VIVA World Cup fell through, first with Östersund in Sápmi, of whom had applied in 2010, however left for CONIFA; then with the Isle of Man who did so at an unknown time, however the NFB claimed to continue the application again for a "pseudo European Championship" in 2015; and finally with Tatarstan in 2013–2014, as Andrei Rudakov, the person they were discussing with to make the tournament, had been summoned for embezzlement, and a lack of time to organise a new tournament as the VIVA World Cup for that year.[27]
The Viva Cups of 2017
On 6 May 2017, the N.F.-Board announced its return, making the claim that they would be taking over leadership of the Non-FIFA scene once again.[28] 2 weeks later, on 21 May, they announced the 2017 Euro Viva Cup,[d] a 2018 Women's Viva World Cup, and announced the possibility of making a second[e] European branch of the N.F.-Board called NFB-EUROPE, all in Vichy.[29] One day later, they updated the countries' positions on the NFB's website, suspending most Associates and graduating the provisional associations to Associate, or suspending them, or even removing them entirely.[30][clarification needed] On 6 December, however, the Vichy authorities had communicated that negotiations with the N.F.-Board had been interrupted for some time, and that no tournament would be held.[31]
Administrative changes
The end of manual affiliation
Since 2017, the N.F.-Board has stopped affiliating football associations and leagues manually. Rather, they automatically "reference"[clarification needed] them once they are representative of a non-FIFA UN member, observer, non-self-governing territory; or the first/second level subdivisions of a UN member state; or major islands/archipelagos or the internationally recognised indigenous and transnational peoples.[32]
Moving headquarters
On 20 June 2023, the N.F.-Board moved their headquarters from Liège to Saint-Christophe-et-le-Laris.[33]
Post-2023 Viva World Cup announcements
2025 Mixed Viva World Cup
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 is scheduled to run from June 20–29.[34][35]
On 20 April 2025, the N.F.-Board said on their Facebook post about the MVWC that they "only play 11 at the moment"[clarification needed] and that it was just an idea.[36]
As of July 2025 the N.F.-Board has yet again gone silent on the topic of the 2025 MVWC, and no news has came out about it since it's announcement; possibly because the event may have been cancelled.[speculation?]
2026 and 2028 Viva World Cups
On 18 January 2025, they, once again, announced 2 new VIVA World Cups for 2026 and 2028, saying the 2026 VIVA World Cup would also be restricted to non-FIFA UN countries, 2028, to the non-FIFA islands and archipelagos. But, they refused to disclose more detail about the two new VIVA World Cups beyond that.[37][38]
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VIVA World Cup
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N.F.-Board organized five and planned six VIVA World Cups, including the inaugural games in November 2006.
The first VIVA World Cup was originally planned to be in 2005. However, due to unknown reasons, it was postponed to 2006.
As of 2012, the reigning champion is Kurdistan, and the runner up is Northern Cyprus national football team.
The events that were placed are as follows (striken-out events are cancelled, italicized ones are planned):
- 2006 Viva World Cup in Hyères, Occitania (Champion: Sápmi)
- 2008 Viva World Cup in Gällivare, Sápmi (Champion: Padania)
- 2009 Viva World Cup in Padania (Varese, Novara, Brescia, and Verona) (Champion: Padania)
- 2010 Viva World Cup in Gozo (Xewkija, and Sannat) (Champion: Padania)
- 2012 Viva World Cup in Kurdistan (Erbil, Salahaddin, Sulaymaniyah, and Duhok) (Champion: Kurdistan)
2014 Viva World Cup in Kazan, Tatarstan2017 Viva World Cup in Vichy, France- 2026 Viva World Cup in TBD
- 2028 Viva World Cup in TBD
Women's editions
The N.F.-Board also hosted women's editions of the VIVA World Cup.
Other versions of the Viva World Cup
There have also been multiple attempts to have different forms of the VIVA World Cup, those being:
Both attempts, however, were cancelled.
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List of members
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Members of the N.F.-Board
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Source of member list: https://nfbwebsite.wixsite.com/nfboard/fa
The members in bold competed in at least one Viva World Cup.[63]
The members in italic competed in one of the N.F.-Board's tournaments for women.[64][65]
* means a member has an association, but currently, does not have a team.
Joke members
There are two joke members of the N.F.-Board: Southern Lower Saxony, and possibly Himalaya.
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South Lower Saxony (Association: South Lower Saxony Football Federation; Code: BSX) was said to be a joke by the president of the organisation. No team was made for the association and they only went to one meeting to celebrate their creation.[66]
Himalaya (Association: Himalaya Football Association; Code: HIM) is unclear to be a joke, but most likely is one. No confirmation from the president like with Southern Lower Saxony, however all signs point to it being a joke; with the 2 things that mention it only talking about the yeti being in the association.[67][68]
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Non-members listed as members
The N.F.-Board also claims to have 3 members that never actually applied to the federation:
Kiribati (Association: Kiribati Islands Football Association; Code: KIR)[66]
Yap (Association: Yap Soccer Association; Code: YAP)[20]
Pohnpei (Association: Pohnpei Soccer Association; Code: POH)[20]
Yap, seems to be the only one of the three, which actually got mad about being listed as a member, despite them never applying.[20]
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N.F.-Board World Ranking
 | This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: woefully out of date; rankings from 2007 and we know there are subsequent ones. (July 2025) |
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Leadership
| This section needs expansion with: more of the leadership of the N.F.-Board, and more certain dates. You can help by adding to it. (June 2025) |
Executive Committee
Presidents
Premier Vice-Presidents
Vice-Presidents
General Secretaries
Treasurers
Founders
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Continental confederations
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South American Board of New Football Federations (COSANFF)
The South American Board of New Football Federations (Spanish: Consejo Sudamericano de Nuevas Federaciones de Fútbol; Portuguese: Conselho Sul-Americano de Novas Federações de Futebol; COSANFF) is a confederation for South American football federations. It was founded on 25 May 2007, and has been based in Buenos Aires ever since.[73]
At first, it was a continental confederation of the N.F.-Board, however in 2014 this was no longer the case, and COSANFF had become independent of the NFB.[74][speculation?]
When CSANF was still under the N.F.-Board, they only included one team in N.F.-Board (Easter Island) and 7 affiliated members that were not affiliated with the NF-Board; when they still had the NF-Board's flag on their logo, and they were proudly exclaiming that they were affiliated with the NFB. (as it was last recorded).[75]
When it was first made, the name of COSANFF was the South American Board of New Federations, or the Council of South American New Federations[76] (Spanish: Consejo Sudamericano de Nuevas Federaciones; Portuguese: Conselho Sul-Americano de Novas Federações; CSANF). On 23 July 2021, CSANF changed their name to the South American Board of New Football Federations, and changed their logo along with it.[77] As of July 2025, they are still using both the new logo and the new name.
Copa CSANF / COSANFF
COSANFF plays the Copa COSANFF (formerly known as the Copa CSANF), with the events being as follows:
- 2011 Copa CSANF in the Juan Fernández Islands (Champion: Juan Fernández Islands (won on penalties))
- 2014 Copa CSANF in Buenos Aires, Argentina (Champion: Armenian Argentine Community)
- 2017 Copa CSANF in Buenos Aires, Argentina (Champion: Armenian Argentine Community)
Members of COSANFF
As CSANF — 2012
As COSANFF — 2025
As of June 2025, COSANFF has 11 members:[78]
Leadership of CSANF
| This section needs expansion with: COSANFF, this only goes up to 2013. You can help by adding to it. (June 2025) |
Presidents
Vice-Presidents
General Secretaries
Treasurers
Department of Art
Delegates of CSANF
Confederation of European New Federations (CENF)
On 30 December 2007, the Confederation of European New Federations (CENF) was created to be the European confederation of the N.F.-Board.[79][80]
It was dissolved on 9 March 2009,[81] as the N.F.-Board thought that they didn't need a European confederation at the time.[82] Most of the former members of the CENF went on to be part of the Non-FIFA News Agency after its dissolution.[83]
Due to the link rot of content related to the CENF, it is unknown if it garnered any member associations in its lifetime, or if the CENF Cup, its tournament which it planned to host in 2008, was actually hosted.
| This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2025) |
Leadership of the CENF
Presidents
Vice-President
General Secretary
Treasurer
Media Relations Director
Removed positions
National Associations Director
New positions
Contact Director
North American and Arctic New Federations (NAANF)
In 2008, the N.F.-Board began affiliation talks with the newly formed North American and Arctic New Federations (NAANF),[n] which was founded by Carlos Rodriguez.[speculation?] It represented teams from North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Arctic region that are not affiliated with FIFA.[84][85][76]
Potential members apparently included Greenland, Québec, and the Wyandot Nation.[84][85]
Not much else is known about the confederation, due to link rot.
| This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2025) |
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See also
External links
Non-FIFA
- Non-FIFA Football Forum at the Wayback Machine (archived 2009-02-07)
- Non-FIFA World Archives (currently, contains documents from the NFB, the CENF, and the Non-FIFA Agency; Archived 2025-06-20 at the Wayback Machine
N.F.-Board
- The N.F.-Board's official website
- N.F.-Board on Facebook
- nfbviva on Twitter (possibly NF___Board too?)
- N.F.-Board's channel on YouTube
- N.F.-Board News's channel on YouTube
CSANF / COSANFF
- CSANF's first website
- CSANF's second website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2018-07-20)
- CSANF's third website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2021-03-03)
- COSANFF's website
- COSANFF on Twitter
CENF
- The CENF's first website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2008-04-02)
- The CENF's second website [dead link]
- The CENF's third website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2009-10-08) (Outlinks couldn't be saved until 2019, so most of this page is broken/dead)
- The CENF's fourth/final website [dead link]
- CENF's channel on YouTube
- CENF group on Facebook
- CENF - Message Board at the Wayback Machine (archived 2008-10-08)
OMF
- The OMF's official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2005-03-06)
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References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
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