Tibet national football team

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Tibet

Nickname(s)

"The Forbiddens"

Association

Tibetan National Football Association

Confederation

NF Board

Head coach

Thupten Choephel

Most caps

Top scorer

Tsering Dhundup

FIFA code

none

Elo ranking

227





First kit





Second kit

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 is not internationally recognized. It represents the people of Tibet, many of whom live in exile outside their nation, and who are represented by the Tibetan Government in Exile. The goal of the Tibetan Football Association, which controls the team, is to gain official status. Tibet is neither a member of FIFA nor the AFC and does not participate in international tournaments.

1 The Forbidden Team
2 FIFI Wild Cup (Hamburg, Germany) and ELF Cup (Northern Cyprus)
3 Current squad
4 Selected Internationals
5 External links

[edit] 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 thinks 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 Dhramasala to begin practice. Jens Espense was hired by the Tibetan Football Associate 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.

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

The FIFI Wild Cup, which took place in Hamburg, Germany. The first match they played was against St. Pauli on May 30, 2006. This game was a loss of seven to nil.The second and final match of Tibet in this tournament was against Gibraltar on May 31, 2006. This game they also lost five to nil. Although they lost both games pretty badly the experience was still important for the Tibetans, because every time they step on the pitch to play they represent an independent Tibet. During the ELF Cup Tibet still did not bring in any wins but they did suffer their biggest defeat. The first game was against Tajikistan on November 19, 2006 where they lost three to nil. On November 20, Tibet played the Crimean Tatars, which was a close game but they still lost one to nil. Finally on November 21 the biggest loss came when Tibet played Northern Cyprus, who won ten to nil.

[edit] Current squad

Goalkeepers:

Tamding Tsering
Tenzin Namgyal

Tsering Wangchuk

Defenders:

Lobsang Wangyal
Gonpo Dorjee
Kunchok Dorjee
Passang Phuntsok
Ngawang Tenzin
Dawa Tsering
Dorjee Tsering

Midfielders:

Tsering Dhundup
Tsering Chonjor
Tenzin Dhargyal
Nyima Gyalpo
Dorjee Wangchuk

Forwards:

Tashi Tsering
Karma Yeshi
Tseten Namgyal
Lobsang Norbu
Sonam Rinchen
Tenzin Tsering
Tenzing tsephel

[edit] Selected Internationals

Date	Venue		Opponent	Score
May 7, 2008	Milano	Tibet	Padania	2 - 13
April 19, 2008	Netherlands	Tibet	JEKA Breda	1 - 1 [1]
November 2, 2007	Sikkim	Tibet	Bhutan	0 - 3
August 4, 2007	New Delhi, India	Tibet	Delhi XI	6 - 0 [2]
November 21, 2006	TR Northern Cyprus	Tibet	Northern Cyprus	0 - 10
November 20, 2006	TR Northern Cyprus	Tibet	Image:Kok Bayraq.svg Crimea	0 - 1 (Crimean Tatars)
November 19, 2006	TR Northern Cyprus	Tibet	Tajikistan Futsal	0 - 3
May 31, 2006	Germany	Tibet	Gibraltar	0 - 5
May 30, 2006	Germany	Tibet	Rep. St.Pauli	0 - 7
October 10, 2003	Sikkim	Tibet	Sikkim	1 - 2
July 14, 2001	Germany	Tibet	Monaco	1 - 2
Jun 30 2001	Denmark	Tibet	Greenland	1 - 4