Tibet national football team

Infobox National football team
Name = Tibet
Badge = Flag of Tibet.svg
Nickname = "The Forbiddens"
Association = Tibetan National Football Association
Elo Rank = 227
Coach = Kelsang Dhondup
Most caps = ?
Confederation = NF Board
Top scorer = Tsering Dhundup
FIFA code = N/A
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First game = flagicon|Greenland Greenland 4 - 1 Tibet flagicon|Tibet (Copenhagen, Denmark; June 30 2001)
Largest win = flagicon|Tibet Tibet 6 - 0 Delhi XIflagicon|India
(New Delhi, India; August 4, 2007)

Largest loss = flagicon|Padania Padania 13 - 2 Tibet flagicon|Tibet
(Milan, Italy; May 7, 2008)
World cup apps =
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World cup best =
Regional name =
Regional cup apps =
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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.

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 "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.

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

Tenzin Tshepel

elected Internationals

External links

* [http://www.elfcup.org ELF Cup page]
* [http://www.fifi-wildcup.de FIFI Wild Cup page]
* [http://www.kaospilot.dk/docs/tibet.asp Non-official Homepage]
* [http://www.tnsa.info/ Web page of TIBETAN NATIONAL FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373848/ "The Forbidden Team", a Danish movie about the political struggle to put on the game against Greenland]
* [http://www.forbiddenteam.com The Forbidden Team documentary]
* [http://www.nf-board.com/en1 Official page N.F.-Board]
* [http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E426ECF3AD91E815&locale=en_US&persist_locale=1/ Youtube playlist with "The Forbidden Team" movie, divided in 8 parts.]