Tibet national football team
 |
|
| Nickname(s) | "The Forbiddens" |
|---|---|
| Association | Tibetan National Football Association |
| Confederation | ConIFA |
| Head coach | Kelsang Dhondup |
| Most caps | Husam Alsaif (footballer) |
| Top scorer | Tsering Dhundup (4) |
| Elo ranking | |
| Current | 232 |
| Highest | 174 (6 November 1972) |
| Lowest | 232 (2015) |
| First international | |
 Greenland 4–1 Tibet  (Copenhagen, Denmark; 30 June 2001) |
|
| Biggest win | |
|
|
|
| Biggest defeat | |
 Padania 14–2 Tibet (Milan, Italy; 7 May 2008) |
|
Tibet 6–0 Delhi XI
The Tibet national football team is a football team controlled by the Tibetan National Football Association (TNFA), an organization of exiled Tibetans. Its current team manager is Kelsang Dhondup.
Many of the players are in exile and are represented by the Tibetan Government in Exile. The team is part of neither FIFA 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.
The first international game the team played was against Greenland, which took place 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. The documentary was named 'The Forbidden Team'. To form the team, a selective tournament was held in Dehradun, India. It featured all the various Tibetan football teams around India.
After the team was selected, Team Tibet headed to Dharamsala to begin their practice sessions where 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 and the players were not even at a minor league level. Moreover, the pitch was in horrible condition and only half of it could be used as it was located on a public road. During practice, Karma Nyodup was working to get all documentation done for the flight to Greenland. Numbers of players were soon dropped due to improper travel documents.
After a month had passed, the team flew to Denmark for their first international game, which was organized by Michael Nybrandt. He was also advocating Tibet when the Chinese government raised their cause for concern. China did not want this match to happen as they believed Tibet belonged to China. It threatened to cut off all its trade with Denmark if the match went on 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.
...
Wikipedia