Tibet national football team

Tibet

Nickname(s)	"The Forbiddens"
Association	Tibetan National Football Association
Confederation	NF Board
Head coach	Kelsang Dhondup
Most caps	?
Top scorer	Tsering Dhundup
Elo ranking	227
Home colours Away colours
First international
Greenland 4 - 1 Tibet (Copenhagen, Denmark; June 30, 2001)
Biggest win
Tibet 6 - 0 Delhi XI (New Delhi, India; August 4, 2007)
Biggest defeat
Padania 13 - 2 Tibet (Milan, Italy; May 7, 2008)

The Tibet national football team represents the people of Tibet, many of whom live in exile outside their nation, and who are represented by the Tibetan Government in Exile. It is not part of neither FIFA nor AFC. An association was founded in 2001. The goal of the Tibetan Football Association, which controls the team, is to gain official status and to organise a prestigious football tournament. Tibet is neither a member of FIFA nor the AFC and does not participate in international tournaments.

The Forbidden Team

The first international game the Tibetans played was against Greenland. This match was played in Denmark. The team was followed by a documentary film crew, during the process of forming the team, practices, the match, and everything in between. This documentary is called The Forbidden Team. To form the team a selection tournament was held in Dehradun, India. This tournament featured all the various Tibetan football teams around India. Before going to the selection match Sonam Wangyal went to offer a prayer saying, "We are taught by our parents and everybody that you never pray for yourself, you pray for all beings in the world. All living things including the beings because that will include you. You'll be uplifted with the beings. I just prayed that everybody gets selected." (The Forbidden Team).

After the team was selected they headed to Dharamsala to begin practice. Jens Espense was hired by the Tibetan Football Association to coach the team for the match. He had only a month to get them conditioned and ready to play. This proved difficult for two reasons. The first reason was that the players were not even at minor league level, so a lot of work needed to by done with them. Two, the pitch was in horrible condition and only half of it could be used. Also the pitch is located on a public road; they could not stop the flow of people or cattle. Even with so many elements playing against them the team gave their all, practicing twice a day for a month. The teams manager, Karma Nyodup, has such faith in the team that he believes that given ten years the world would see a Tibetan footballer who could compete with the best in the world.

While the team was out practicing Karma Nyodup was busy trying to get all the proper documentation done so the team could go to Greenland. Unfortunately, even with all the hard work the players put in, many were dropped because they did not have proper travel documents. Captain of the team Sonam Wangyal commented on this saying, "It's very sad. I feel so sad for my friends. More than half the team is not going...they won't say so but inside they feel very bad. But what do you do? I guess that's life."(The Forbidden Team).

Soon a month had passed and it was time for the team to head to Denmark, where the game was being held. In Denmark Michael Nybrandt was organizing the match between Tibet and Greenland. He was also advocating Tibet when the Chinese government raised their concerns. China did not want this match to happen; they believe that Tibet is part of China therefore the Chinese National Team includes Tibet. China was threatening to cut off all trade with Denmark if this game went on as planned. Denmark did not back down, however, and allowed the game to go on.So on June 30, 2001 the Tibetan National Football Team took the field to play their first international match. Sadly, even after all the hard work that went into putting this game together, the Tibetan National Football Team lost their first international match, one to four.

FIFI Wild Cup (Hamburg, Germany) and ELF Cup (Northern Cyprus)

The 2006 FIFI Wild Cup took place in Hamburg, Germany. The first match they played was against St. Pauli on May 30, 2006. They lost this game 7-0. The second and final match of Tibet in this tournament was against Gibraltar on May 31, 2006. They lost this game 5-0. During the ELF Cup Tibet did not win any games and they suffered their biggest defeat. The first game was against Tajikistan on November 19, 2006 where they lost 3-0. On November 20, Tibet played the Crimean Tatars, which they lost 1-0. Finally on November 21 the biggest loss came when Tibet played Northern Cyprus, who beat them 10-0.

Activities of the Tibetan National Football Association

The Tibetan National Football Association was founded in 2001, soon after the authorization was delivered by the Kashag (the Tibet Cabinet), and registration under Indian law.^[1] Jetsun Pema, the sister of the 14th Dalai Lama is the president of the association, Thupten Dorjee the secretary, and Kalsang Dhondup the executive secretary. The association is now organizing the Gyalyum Chenmo Memorial Gold Cup GCMGC football tournament which existed already in the 80's. In 2003, the 17th Karmapa was the chief guest on the first day of the tournament which took place at the Tibetan Children's Village in Dharamsala.^[2] Mr. Shrikant Baldi, Deputy Commissioner of Kangra, was the chief guest in 2004 for the tournament.^[3] The 13th GCMGC, took place in 2007, and the chief guest was Khenchen Menling Tri Rinpoche of Mendroling Monastery.^[4]. The 14th took place in 2008, and the chief guest was Khyabje Ling Rinpoche^[5]

Current squad

Selected Internationals

Date	Venue	Opponent	Competition	Result
7 May 2008	Milan	Padania		2 - 13
19 April 2008	Breda, North Brabant	JEKA Breda		1 - 1
17 April 2008	Maassluis, South Holland	VDL-Maassluis		0 - 5
2 November 2007	Paljor Stadium, Gangtok, Sikkim	Bhutan		0 - 3
4 August 2007	Kirori Mal College, New Delhi	Delhi XI		6 - 0
21 November 2006	Dr. Fazil Kucuk Stadium, Famagusta	Northern Cyprus	ELF Cup 2006	0 - 10
20 November 2006	Zafer Stadium, Güzelyurt	Crimea	ELF Cup 2006	0 - 1
19 November 2006	Zafer Stadium, Güzelyurt	Tajikistan (futsal team)	ELF Cup 2006	0 - 3
30 May 2006	Millerntor-Stadion, Hamburg	Republic of St. Pauli	2006 FIFI Wild Cup	0 - 7
31 May 2006	Millerntor-Stadion, Hamburg	Gibraltar	2006 FIFI Wild Cup	0 - 5
10 October 2003	Paljor Stadium, Gangtok, Sikkim	Sikkim		1 - 2
14 July 2001	Germany	Monaco		1 - 2
30 Jun 2001	Denmark	Greenland		1 - 4

References

External links

• ELF Cup page
• FIFI Wild Cup page
• Non-official Homepage
• Web page of TIBETAN NATIONAL FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION
• "The Forbidden Team", a Danish movie about the political struggle to put on the game against Greenland
• The Forbidden Team documentary
• Official page N.F.-Board
• Youtube playlist with "The Forbidden Team" movie, divided in 8 parts.

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