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The Banija and Free Republics bid for World Cup LXXXI (81)

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:58 am
by Free Republics
Banija/Free Republics World Cup LXXXI Bid


The Royal Banijan Soccer Association, Joined by the Joint Legislative Committee for Major International Events of the Federation of Free Republics (JLCMIEFFR), are officially submitting their bid to the World Cup Committee to co-host the 81st edition of the World Cup Finals.

Banijan National Information

The Kingdom of Banija is a country that classifies itself as a semi-constitutional monarchy. A nation that is freshly a member of Atlantian Oceania, it is led by the Kabaka(which translates to King), and the current monarch is Kabaka Albert III. The Kabaka, alongside with the Waziri(translates to Foreign Minister), whom he picks and dismisses solely at his pleasure, is the Head of State and responsible for the country's foreign affairs.

The Lukiiko(translates to Parliament) is a democratically-elected, constituency-based, first past the post, legislature that has the power of the purse and controls all legislative affairs for the country. The Lukiiko, every term, elects the Katikkiro(Prime Minister), who picks a cabinet and leads the government. Racially, the nation is 99.2% black. This is a very religious based Christian nation, as 92% of Banijans are affiliated with the state church, the Puritan Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, whose followers are called Puritan Mormons. Shia Islam & Sikhism are the next largest religious communities, each at 3% of the national population. The Guardian Council, a council of 6 members, with 3 picked by the Kabaka from the House of Katende(the royal house), and 3 picked by the Church, has the ability to oppose laws based on religious grounds. It takes a 5-1 majority on the Guardian Council to reject any bill passed by the Lukiiko.

Due to the massive influence of Puritan Mormonism in this nation, they are relatively socially conservative. Abortion in this country is outlawed unless the mother's life is in danger, and the church's Universal Call to Motherhood, which teaches that the destiny of each and every woman is to give birth to children and raise faithful Puritan Mormons, has heavily shaped the nation's view on the role of women in society. Therefore, it is against the law for any professional sports teams based in Banija to have men and women on the team. However, this law only applies to teams based in Banija, which is why it is perfectly legal when foreign-based teams, either for away games or when Banija hosts tournaments, to have people of any gender. Consumption of alcohol in Banija is legal.

Of course, Banija is a 3rd world country by modern economic standards. A general lack of development in Banija, we are a country with excellent sporting infrastructure, but little else. Most roads are dirt, and while public transit within cities is excellent, between cities it is not. The climate of Banijan has a lot of natural rainforest and jungle, which means that there is no winter, only wet season and dry season. Temperatures generally range at their coldest around 60 degrees fahrenheit, and at their hottest around 110 degrees fahrenheit.

Due to the nation’s large Mormon population, there are a number of laws that are not usually seen by foreigners. The sale of coffee is banned within Banija’s borders- however, the consumption is not. Foreigners are encouraged to bring coffee with them flying into Banija, though it must be declared at all ports of entry into the country. Secondly, due to the Mormon influence, polygamy is legal for males, and many males are, indeed, polygamous.

Banijan cuisine, due to the tropical climate, is based a lot on the plantain and the banana. Staple foods are things like matoke, casava, etc… And are also known for being heavy meat eaters. Banijans are known for excessively putting miraculin berries on almost all of their desert options. And, of course, while no major sun block companies operate within Banija’s borders, all stadiums and street watch parties will be ensured to have sun block available for sale for fans.


Free Republics National Information

The Free Republics are a vast federation of Republics, spanning 3 continents, that pride themselves on being, from their perspective, the freest nation in the multiverse. In most of the Free Republics, you are free to do almost anything, so long as you have the money to pay your own way. Laws do very greatly between Republics, so be sure to read up on the local laws before entering a Republic. Republics are forbidden from restricting a number of basic freedoms, such as the absolute freedom of speech, the absolute right to carry open or concealed firearms anywhere and the right to due process. Laws do exist against crimes such as theft and murder and there are laws against non-consensual assault, but one should keep in mind that the Free Republics defines consent in a broad manner. The Free Republics has faced political turmoil in recent years, with two administrations coming to power that ignored the federation's Constitution and violated many fundamental rights but under the leadership of Consul Nicholls and Consul Bolton, most of those laws have been repealed. The Free Republics also faced a recent rebellion by a handful of Republics which was put down by the Republican military. In order to address its chronic political extremism problem, the Free Republics has recently created "charter societies" within its territory that are autonomous entities under the Republican banner.

The Federation Government of the Free Republics is led by 2 Consuls, one of whom is elected every 4 years to an 8 year term under a 3-round electoral system with party primaries. The winners of the primaries advance to the general election where every candidate who gets at least 10% of the vote advances to the second round. The top 2 finishers in the second round advance to the final round. If any candidate receives a majority (50% + 1) of the vote in the first or second round, that candidate is automatically elected. The Consuls have full executive power, including the absolute power to veto any action of their co-Consul or the Legislature. The Legislature consists of 2 chambers. Members of the Senate are appointed for life terms by the governments of the various Republics. Every 2 years, each Republic may appoint a new Senator. The 10,173 seat Assembly is elected in full every 2 years by party list proportional representation with all parties that attain at least 2% of the vote being assigned a proportional number of seats. In addition, each Republic has its own elected government that retains all powers not explicitly granted to the Federation Government by the Constitution.

Charter Societies are a recent addition to the Free Republics. They are special territories of the Free Republics that once rebelled against the Federation Government in the Leftist Republics Rebellion. After crushing the rebellion, the Federation Government sold the rights to govern them, exempt from elections and constitutional provisions, to the highest bidders. They effectively function as a containment zone for political extremist groups that wish to govern outside of the Constitution and traditions of the Free Republics.

Specific details regarding the size of the population of the Free Republics or the demographics of said population are unknown due to a Constitutional provision that makes it unlawful to conduct a census. Federation law has also extended this to private actors, effectively making it impossible for anybody to know the exact population of the Free Republics or any demographic characteristics of said population. However, it is widely accepted that the population exceeds 11 billion people and that the Republican population is overwhelmingly “white” and nominally Christian but not particularly devout. There are sizeable Taiyouese and Iradian minorities however and they generally practice their traditional Shinto and Zoroastrian religions, respectively. While religion is unimportant for most Republicans, militant atheism and forms of radical Christianity such as the Church of Saintland and the Salvation Circle comprise significant minorities. There are also some Ciqian immigrants but not as many because Ciqi was only a Republican colony for a few years. Republicans of all backgrounds tend to be very proud of their country, often to the extent of believing themselves superior to foreigners.

Most of the Free Republics permits tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, prostitution and gambling. All of the Free Republics permits the sale of pornography, as it has been deemed constitutionally protected speech by the Supreme Court. Around half of the Republics even permit the sale of some or all of the harder recreational drugs. Every single Republic permits the sale, use and import of coffee. Steroids are widely available and whether or not they can be legally used by athletes is left up to each Republic and each domestic league. The Free Republics does not have a single major domestic league system but rather hundreds of competing co-equal leagues, many of which compete only in a single Republic. In addition, Republican “National Teams” are privately owned corporations. For example, Rule Theriault owns Republican National Soccer Team, LLC and thus cannot be lawfully fired as the manager of the team by anybody other than himself. However, college sports are run by the RCAA on a national basis and college athletes may be paid by the school and may profit on their fame through licensing and endorsement deals. While most athletes just go pro or join a National Team organization if they have the opportunity, paying college athletes encourages athletes who choose to go to school to stay in school, leading to high graduation rates.

The Republican economy is a powerhouse that has been booming in recent years under the pro-business policies of Consul Nicholls that have driven estimated unemployment rates below 2% even as millions of new migrants enter the Free Republics illegally and oftentimes bribe some corrupt local government official to forge fake birth certificates providing them with Republican citizenship. Republicans tend to purchase products that are Republican-made or made in a former Republican colony such as Ciqi, Irad or Taiyou. Wealthy Republicans often store money in secret Acedonian bank accounts to evade the Flat Tax but Acedonian goods are rare because Acedonia doesn’t really produce much. Republican intellectual property laws famously only apply to works made by Republicans or citizens of former Republican colonies, which permits any Republican company to sell foreign intellectual property without compensating the creators. Republican companies generally focus on the domestic market first but are more than happy to export products abroad if they can turn a profit.

The Republican climate varies by region and by season. During the World Cup, which takes place during the fall in the Free Republics, it will be cold in the north but too early for snow outside of the mountainous regions. In the south, the climate is more tropical and it tends to be very wet during that time of the year.

Format

There will be 32 teams in the World Cup Finals, competing in 8 groups of 4 with the top 2 advancing to the Round of 16. The 2 co-hosts will automatically qualify, per World Cup tradition.

For Qualifying, we will use groups and a single round of playoffs to determine the other 30 teams that qualify for the World Cup. All group winners will qualify for the World Cup. Some possible formats are:

152 teams - 15 groups of 10, group winners qualify, second and third place teams compete in playoffs just like in World Cup 80 to determine last 15 qualifiers
162 teams - 20 groups of 8, group winners qualify, second place teams compete in playoffs
173 teams - 19 groups of 9, group winners and top 3 second place teams qualify, remaining second place teams compete in playoffs
182 teams - 20 groups of 9, group winners qualify, second place teams compete in playoffs
192 teams - 19 groups of 10, group winners and top 3 second place teams qualify, remaining second place teams compete in playoffs
202 teams - 20 groups of 10, group winners qualify, second place teams compete in playoffs

Scorination & RP Bonus

Scorination will be done with the latest version of xkoranate, as of 24 hours before the first cutoff of World Cup Qualifying. We will use the World Cup 68 version of the SQIS formula and xkoranate (additive) style modifiers. There will be an RP bonus which will be generous, cumulative and fair to all styles of RP. There will also be a roster bonus. The exact details regarding the bonus scale will remain confidential. One third of the bonus from qualifying will carryover to the World Cup Finals.

Tiebreakers

For tiebreakers, we will use the following: HTH points, HTH goal difference, Overall Goal Difference, Wins, Goals Scored, Coin Flip (OOCly Rank+RP Bonus or, if still tied, we'll break the tie by scorinating tiebreaker matches until the tie is broken).

Specialties

Sponsorships - We feel that the idea of World Cup sponsorships, brought forward by the Equestrian States/Starblaydia, was a great idea brought forward by that bid that added an extra element of interest to the tournament. Therefore, we will continue the tradition of World Cup Sponsorships, in the hope that this will become a permanent tradition for the NationStates World Cup.

Concert - In order to acknowledge and honor the first World Cup co-hosted by the Free Republics, we will be bringing back the World Cup Concert. While the World Cup 68 Concert only featured songs from the Free Republics, we will hold a World Cup 81 Concert in the Free Republics prior to the start of the World Cup Finals and will accept songs from all nations that participated in World Cup Qualifying.

Stadiums- Each host shall have something unique in terms of stadiums. As the Free Republics is an extremely large nation and JLCMIEFFR would prefer to spread the World Cup out across as many cities as possible to ensure as many of our people as possible have an opportunity to attend a World Cup match, we propose the use of a different stadium for every single World Cup match held in the Free Republics for a total of 32 different stadiums. This will be 8 more host stadiums than the 24 we used for World Cup 68 and unlike World Cup 68 where New City hosted 2 matches and Petrograd hosted 3, each city would host just a single match. To reduce costs for the teams participating in the Free Republics half of the World Cup, JLCMIEFFR will cover lodging and domestic travel costs for the teams visiting the Free Republics. In addition, as RT&T Stadium in New City has fallen into disrepair and we would prefer to host the World Cup final match in a stadium that seats over 150,000, we will hold an open bidding process to renovate or replace RT&T Stadium.

For those who follow Banijan soccer, they would know that Banija does not currently have a stadium that fits requirements on stadium capacity(80,000 as established by FIFA) to host the World Cup 81 opening match nor the Final. However, should we win the bid, the Royal Banijan Soccer Association shall have an open bid process open to the multiverse to design a new national stadium in our nation’s capital, to replace the present Stadium of the Restoration, that will host either the opening match & opening ceremonies of the World Cup, and become the new national stadium.

Experience

The Kingdom of Banija has hosted the following tournaments
World Bowl XXXIV
25th International Basketball Championships(co-hosted w/ Filindostan)
28th World Lacrosse Championships
29th World Lacrosse Championships(co-hosted with Razenthuria)
67th Baptism of Fire(co-hosted w/ Qasden)
Two conferences in NSCAA 7
Istria Open

The Free Republics have previous hosted or co-hosted Cup of Harmony 58 (with Falcus), World Cup 68 (with Legalese), the X Winter Olympics, World Baseball Classic 42, World Bowls XXII (as both Saintland and Free Republics) and XXXI, World Cup of Hockey XXXV, Rugby Union World Cup 25 and many other events. The Republic of Falatulu, which is now once again part of the Free Republics, also hosted Campionato Esportiva XVI. The same OOC user has also hosted Baptism of Fire 59 (with Star United States), World Baseball Classics 27 (with Maklohi Vai), 34 (solo) and 37 (with Frenline Delpha), Copa Rushmori XXII, International Basketball Championships 17 (with Royal Kingdom of Quebec), World Cup of Hockey XXIII and a number of other events with other nations.

We welcome your questions and comments.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 2:44 pm
by Razenthuria
FFRxBNJ?
If this doesn't spell "clout" I dont know what does u_U
Anyways I like the bid - one question; could I design a logo or somethin'?
Once again best of luck to my brudda Ban-ban and FFR.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 4:36 pm
by South Covello
For the 19 group ones, shouldn't the top 3 second place teams go through? 19+3+16/2=19+3+8=22+8=30. You can't have 17 teams in the playoffs.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 4:42 pm
by Free Republics
South Covello wrote:For the 19 group ones, shouldn't the top 3 second place teams go through? 19+3+16/2=19+3+8=22+8=30. You can't have 17 teams in the playoffs.


That's correct and that part of our bid has been changed to reflect this.

PostPosted: Thu Jul 05, 2018 10:20 am
by Qusmo
Some time has passed since the last post in this thread, but it's still quite relevant.

Why did you decide to automatically qualify the top three second-place teams in the case of nineteen groups, instead of giving playoff spots to the top three third-place teams?

PostPosted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 7:19 pm
by Free Republics
Qusmo wrote:Some time has passed since the last post in this thread, but it's still quite relevant.

Why did you decide to automatically qualify the top three second-place teams in the case of nineteen groups, instead of giving playoff spots to the top three third-place teams?


Three World Cups in the past have used 19 qualifying groups (64, 67 and 70). Each of those World Cups has seen the top 3 second-place teams auto-qualify. While those World Cups happened several years ago, I remembered the kinds of qualifying formats that were commonly used in that era of the World Cup.

In part, the decision to have the top 3 second-place teams auto qualify instead of advancing the top 3 third-place teams to the playoffs was because we didn't think of the latter option. I don't remember any WC host bids in the days when these larger fields were the norm that proposed something along those lines and we wanted to keep this bid's format conventional.