{"id":1489,"date":"2018-03-17T16:41:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T16:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conifa.org\/en\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2021-08-05T12:24:21","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T11:24:21","slug":"padania-set-their-sights-on-gold-at-wfc-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conifa.org\/en\/padania-set-their-sights-on-gold-at-wfc-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Padania Set Their Sights on Gold at WFC 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Written by: Alun Macer-Wright
\nTwitter:\u00a0@alunmw221<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

London is used to seeing plenty of St George\u2019s flags during a World Cup summer, and there will be a few more in the capital this time around as\u00a0Padania<\/a>, who share the banner, come to town for the CONIFA World Football Cup.<\/p>\n

The Padania Football Association was founded to represent the 8 northern regions of Italy, based around the Po Valley.<\/p>\n

Despite being one of the odds-on favourites for the tournament, Padania are guarding against any complacency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t think the gold is granted,\u201d Padania\u2019s media and commercial manager Marco Marramao said. \u201cEvery single team is getting stronger year after year and every single match will be a battle because everyone wants to be \u2018the one who defeated Padania\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

As seasoned non-FIFA campaigners and CONIFA\u2019s 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0ranked side, Padania\u2019s favourites tag is no surprise. They have won both editions of the CONIFA European Football Cup to date, without losing a game, as well as a 4th<\/sup>\u00a0place finish at the 2016 World Football Cup in Abkhazia. Prior to this, they won the VIVA World Cup three years in succession from 2008 to 2010.<\/p>\n

The quality of player Padania are bringing to London is as formidable as their record. Their line-up is set to feature Marius Stankevi\u010dius, the experienced Lithuanian international who has played top-division football in Italy, Spain, Germany and Turkey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have many other stars: Stefano Tignonsini, our captain, who has been with Padania since the beginning and Andrea Rota, the one with the most goals (7) who is still playing for Padania. But watch out for anyone, because they are very skilled players,\u201d Marramao said.<\/p>\n

The backbone of the team remains much the same as the side which was victorious in Northern Cyprus last year, so Marramao is confident that a lack of warm-up fixtures will not disadvantage the team.<\/p>\n

The aura of London should be more than enough to motivate the team, he said. \u201cLondon is such an inspiring place for playing football and it would be nice to win a World Cup where football itself began.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s strong regional identities are perhaps not surprising when considering the variety of city states and duchies which made up its modern-day boundaries.<\/p>\n

As Italy\u2019s only representatives at a global football tournament this summer, Padania will hope to add to their already impressive CONIFA record with a World Football Cup title next month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by: Alun Macer-Wright Twitter:\u00a0@alunmw221   London is used to seeing plenty of St George\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":1490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global"],"yoast_head":"\nPadania Set Their Sights on Gold at WFC 2018 | CONIFA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conifa.org\/en\/padania-set-their-sights-on-gold-at-wfc-2018\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Padania Set Their Sights on Gold at WFC 2018 | CONIFA\" \/>\n<meta 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