Hi Torto,

It's very simple. You only need 10 players to create a national team.
We had the discussion in Belgium as well two years ago and we decided to go for it, no matter what. Even it this meant paying it out of our own pocket.
The thing is that in such a tournament, you're players will learn a lot more than they can in 20 different international tournaments throughout the year.
I'm not saying Belgium has a great team, far from it, but the level of the players that participated to the last two international tournaments of this level has increased a lot.
They can now also teach their experiences to younger players and that is the only way to grow.
Nobody will come to Portugal and teach you, you'll have to go out and seek the knowledge and this tournament would be the ideal first step.
Try to explain that to your federation and they will hopefully understand.

Should they, however, be a narrow minded diving association, give them a marketing speech on how the enhancement of their product mix will increase their number of customers (being members) and how their market positioning as the underwater sports federation with the biggest offering will only do them good.