The Tibet national football team is a
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
team that represents the cultural region of
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
in
non-FIFA international tournaments, and is organised by 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. Jetsun Pema (Tibet), Jetsun Pema, the sister of the Tenzin Gyatso, 14t ...
(TNFA), an organisation of exiled Tibetans.
Many of the players are in exile and are represented by the
Tibetan Government in Exile
The Central Tibetan Administration (, , ), often referred to as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, is a non-profit political organization based in Dharamshala, India. Its organization is modeled after an elective parliamentary government, compo ...
. The team is part of neither
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
nor the
AFC and does not participate in international tournaments. The TNFA was founded in 2001 and its goal is to gain an official status.
History
The Forbidden Team
![First tibet national team](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/First_tibet_national_team.jpg)
The first international game against a non-Asian team was versus
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
, which took place in Denmark. The team was followed by a documentary film crew during the process of forming the team, practicing, playing the match, and events in between. The documentary was titled 'The Forbidden Team'. To form the team, a selective tournament was held in
Dehradun
Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...
, India, featuring all the various Tibetan football teams around India.
After the team was selected, Team Tibet headed to Dharamsala to begin practice sessions.
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See also
* Jensen (disambiguation) Jensen may refer to:
People
*Jensen (surn ...
was hired by the Tibetan Football Association to coach the team for the match. He had only a month to get the players conditioned and ready to play, despite the team not yet playing at even a minor league level. Moreover, the pitch was in poor condition and only half of it could be used, as it was located on a public road. During practice, Karma Nyodup was working to complete all documentation for the flight to Greenland. A number of players were subsequently dropped due to improper travel documents.
After a month, the team flew to Denmark for its first international game, which was organised by Michael Nybrandt. He was also advocating Tibet at a time when the Chinese government officials had made it clear that they did not want this match to happen as they
believed Tibet belonged to China. They threatened to cut off all of China's trade with Denmark if the match went ahead as planned. Denmark however, did not back down and allowed the game to take place. On 30 June 2001 the Tibetan National Football Team played its first international match where it lost 1– 4 against Greenland.
FIFI Wild Cup (Hamburg, Germany) and ELF Cup (Northern Cyprus)
The
2006 FIFI Wild Cup
The FIFI Wild Cup was an alternative FIFA World Cup, held from 29 May to 3 June 2006 in Germany, prior to the official FIFA World Cup which started one week later. It was run by the Federation of International Football Independents (FIFI).
FIFI ...
took place in Hamburg, Germany. The first match they played was against St. Pauli on 30 May 2006. They lost this game 7–0. The second and final match of Tibet in this tournament was against Gibraltar on 31 May 2006. They lost this game 5–0. During the ''ELF Cup'' Tibet did not win any games. The first game was against Tajikistan on 19 November 2006 where they lost 3–0. On 20 November, Tibet played the Crimean Tatars, which they lost 1–0. Finally, on 21 November the biggest loss came when Tibet played Northern Cyprus, who beat them 10–0.
International Tournament of Peoples, Cultures and Tribes
From 22 to 29 June 2013, Tibet was invited to
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
to participate in the first edition of the International Tournament of Peoples, Cultures and Tribes.
The Tibetan team finished the competition in fifth place.
2018 ConIFA World Football Cup
For the first time in its history, the Tibetan selection participated in the
ConIFA World Football Cup in 2018 by qualifying with the
wild card.
Current squad
The following players were called up to the squad for the
2018 ConIFA World Football Cup in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
Head Coach:
![Flag of Tibet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Flag_of_Tibet.svg)
Penpa Tsering
Selected internationals
General Secretaries of the TNFA
Honours
*
ANFA Cup
The ANFA Cup refers to a series of invitational association football knockout tournaments organised by the All Nepal Football Association. Both National football teams as well as football clubs participated in the past.
History
Although Nepal ha ...
**Runners-up (1): 1985
References
External links
* (TNFA)
* (ConIFA)
{{Confederation of Independent Football Associations members
Sport in Tibet
CONIFA member associations
Asian national and official selection-teams not affiliated to FIFA
Football in Tibet
Football in China