At 11am on January 26th, the Cascadia Association Football Federation (CAFF) had their first meeting at Golazo headquarters in Seattle, Washington.
The meeting drew representatives from around the Pacific Northwest, including members from the Timbers Army, Gorilla FC and Southsiders, who met to discuss the formation of a Cascadia National Football team. While there, members succeeded in establishing the organization and electing a board of directors. In addition, the agenda led to the passing of bylaws, ratification of a mission statement, approval of the official crest, flag, anthem, and player eligibility requirements, as well as an official presentation of their case for inclusion to the Non-FIFA-Board football federation.
Their newly elected board of directors now include:
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Leonard Laymon (President)
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Abram Goldman-Armstrong (Vice President)
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Harper Morgan-Werner (General Secretary)
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Aaron Johnsen (Treasurer)
CAFF has already received formal requests for friendlies from Équipe Québec (The Quebec non-FIFA Football/Soccer Federation) and La Seleccion de Occitània (The Occitan non-FIFA Football/Soccer Federation). The next steps after becoming an N.F.-Board member will be to secure a coach and assemble a team so that they may fulfill those requests.
Sponsored by the newly created CAFF, the team will include professional, semi-pro and amateur members, and will be fielded with the goal of competing in the VIVA world cup, the highest non-FIFA aligned soccer competition in the world, drawing around 500 million viewers. The league is designed to co-exist with FIFA, and is specifically for cultural and autonomous regions that are not recognized by the United Nations.
The meeting was convened because of great interest from the official N.F. Board in Munich, and it is likely Cascadian membership will be discussed at their annual General Meeting to take place later this February, at which CAFF will have an unofficial observer present.
