The Ball 2010

The Padanian VIVA World Cup winning team (see this photo on Flickr)

Our congratulations go to Padania, who were 2-0 winners over the Aramean Syriacs in this year’s VIVA World Cup final.

Padanian fans with their flag (see this photo on Flickr)

The VIVA World Cup is a competition for countries that do not have UN or FIFA recognition. It’s run by the New Football Federations-Board, whose General Secretary is “Luc Misson, a lawyer who represented Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman in a case that led to the Bosman ruling that established greater freedom of movement for professional players in Europe.”

Further reading suggestions: James Montague, author of When Friday Comes: Football in the War Zone, has written a good article about this year’s the VIVA World Cup and Kurdish attempts to join FIFA. There’s also Outcasts!: The Lands That FIFA Forgot, Steve Menary’s book about the footballing nations not recognised by FIFA.

We’ll be passing right through Occitania on our way to South Africa — perhaps we should suggest a game?

In an ongoing series of video embeds that I think have a bearing on the way we develop our style for 2010, here’s one from Matt Harding that’s been doing the blogosphere rounds of late:

I have to say that I really enjoy the light-hearted and inclusive feel to this latest video — previous ones didn’t include other people the way this one does. And I say “hats off” because the guy gets paid to do this!