Our National Team will not participate to the VIVA CUP 2012 in Kurdistan

Cilento acknowledgment by NF-Board an affront to our history

Sunday 25 March 2012 by duesicilie

The Management has decided our National team will not participate in the next VIVA CUP 2012 in Kurdistan, notwithstanding the invitation by the NF-Board. A press release follows (in three languages, English, Italian, French).

To NF-Board

Two Sicilies, 25 March 2012

Subjetct: VIVA CUP 2012

Dear Sirs:

First of all we want to thank you for the hard work you - as NF-Board - put into the organization of the VIVA CUP 2012, and for inviting us to participate, next June, in Kurdistan. We took part in the preliminary trip, last September, to assess the conditions on the terrain in Kurdistan and we were looking forward to compete in the cup.

Unfortunately, the admission of Cilento to the NF-Board and its inclusion in the roster forces us to revise our position. This is a territory which has no particular historical, cultural, linguistic characteristics setting it apart from the sorrounding territories of southern Italy. Its presence makes our participation the object of ridicule. The Two Sicilies and its peoples (about 20 million people within its borders, plus about 30 million abroad) have a thousand years old history and we feel that the ackowledgment of a territory which has always been part of the land we stand for to be an affront to our history. This has not happened for Padania (an artificial construct with no history) for example, even though it does include territories with a history as ancient as ours (for instance, the ancient Nation of Veneto).

For these reasons we are sorry to have to inform you our FA decided to not participate in the coming VIVA CUP 2012. We wish you all and all teams good luck and a great time in Kurdistan next June. Best regards.

The management