Tibet national football team

This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (February 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Tibet

Nickname(s)	The Forbiddens
Association	Tibetan National Football Association
Confederation	CONIFA
Head coach	Gompo Dorjee
Most caps	Tenzin Samdup BK Narayan (9)
Top scorer	Tashi Samphel (5)
First colours Second colours
First international
Unofficial    Nepal 4–0 Tibet  (China; 6 November 1972) Official  Greenland 4–1 Tibet  (Copenhagen, Denmark; 30 June 2001)
Biggest win
Tibet 12–2 Western Sahara  (Marseille, France; 28 June 2013)
Biggest defeat
Provence 22–0 Tibet  (Marseille, France; 23 June 2013)
CONIFA World Football Cup
Appearances	1 (first in 2018)
Best result	12th, 2018

The Tibet national football team is a football team that represents the cultural region of Tibet in non-FIFA international tournaments,^[2] and is organized by the Tibetan National Football Association (TNFA), an organization of exiled Tibetans.

Many of the players are in exile and represent 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.

History

The Forbidden Team

The first international game against a non-Asian team was versus Greenland, which took place in Denmark.^{[citation needed]} 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, India, featuring all the various Tibetan football teams around India.^{[citation needed]}

After the team was selected, Team Tibet headed to Dharamsala to begin practice sessions. Jens Espense 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 or the flight to Greenland. A number of players were subsequently dropped due to improper travel documents.^{[citation needed]}

After a month, the team flew to Denmark for its first international game, which was organized by Michael Nybrandt. He was also advocating for 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, despite all of this, allowed the game to take place. And on June 30, 2001, the Tibetan National Football Team played its first international match in which it lost 1– 4 against Greenland.^[3]

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 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 and lost the game 5–0. During the ELF Cup Tibet played three games, the first game was against Tajikistan on 19, November 2006 in which they lost 3–0. And on the 20th of November, Tibet played the Crimean Tatars, and lost 1–0. In their final match, Tibet played Northern Cyprus, and lost 10–0.

International Tournament of Peoples, Cultures and Tribes

During 2013, Tibet was invited to Marseille, France from June 22 to June 29 in order to take part in the inaugural World Tournament of Peoples, Cultures, and Tribes.

The Tibetan team came in fifth place when the competition was over.

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.^[4]

2023 CONIFA Asia Cup

Tibet participated in the CONIFA Asia Cup in 2023. They lost 5-4 to Hmong FF in their first match, and then lost 3-1 to Tamil Eelam in their next match, which would get them eliminated. However, they qualified for the CONIFA World Cup 2024.

Current squad

The following players were called up to the squad for the 2023 Conifa Asian Football Cup in Alcochete.^[5]

Head Coach: Gompo Dorjee

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
18	1GK	Tenzin Samdup	(1992-12-23) 23 December 1992 (age 31)	9	0	Namdhari FC
1	1GK	Tashi Dorjee	(1995-06-19) 19 June 1995 (age 28)	1	0	Unattached
21	1GK	Gyaltzen Vangchuk	(1998-06-28) 28 June 1998 (age 25)	0	0	Unattached
4	2DF	Tenzing Vangyal	(1995-09-04) 4 September 1995 (age 28)	2	0	Snowlion FC
3	2DF	Tenlha Palden	(2004-07-20) 20 July 2004 (age 19)	2	0	Cholsum FC
15	2DF	Choying Dorjee	(2004-09-15) 15 September 2004 (age 19)	2	0	Unattached
5	2DF	Tenzingh Dhondhen	(1994-12-13) 13 December 1994 (age 29)	4	1	Dhodupling Fc
12	2DF	Karma Sherap	(1992-05-10) 10 May 1992 (age 31)	1	0	Bhoepa United
8	3MF	Tsering Phurba	(1991-11-25) 25 November 1991 (age 32)	9	0	Yak Boyz Paris
6	3MF	Tenzin Jigmey	(1992-01-10) 10 January 1992 (age 32)	2	0	Unattached
11	3MF	Tenpa Lhundup	(1991-12-21) 21 December 1991 (age 32)	4	0	Dhondupling FC
20	3MF	Tenzin Vosal	(2004-01-17) 17 January 2004 (age 20)	1	0	Cholsum FC
16	3MF	Tenzin Loden	(2002-05-09) 9 May 2002 (age 21)	1	0	Unattached
13	3MF	Tenzing Rigdrol	(2004-11-12) 12 November 2004 (age 19)	1	0	Unattached
19	4FW	Lodoe Dava	(1997-12-24) 24 December 1997 (age 26)	1	0	Cholsum FC
14	4FW	Pema Norbu	(2002-11-18) 18 November 2002 (age 21)	2	1	Unattached
10	4FW	Pema Lhundup	(1996-02-11) 11 February 1996 (age 28)	9	1	Jawalakhel Youth Club
7	4FW	Tenzin Thardoe	(1998-03-15) 15 March 1998 (age 26)	3	1	Yak Boyz Paris
2	4FW	Tenzing Thabke	(1995-11-16) 16 November 1995 (age 28)	2	1	Unattached
9	4FW	Shiva Dul	(2005-05-06) 6 May 2005 (age 18)	1	0	Newcastle Olympic FC
17	4FW	Kunphel Sinha	(1998-06-13) 13 June 1998 (age 25)	2	1	Bhoepa United

Selected internationals

Tibet's score is shown first in each case.

Tibet national football team results

No.	Date	Venue	Opponents	Score	Competition	Tibet scorers	Att.	Ref.
1	6 November 1972	China (N)	Nepal	0–4	Friendly		—
2	7 June 1979	Dasharath Rangasala, Kathmandu (A)	Nepal	2–3	Friendly	Unknown	—
3	9 June 1979	Dasharath Rangasala, Kathmandu (A)	Nepal	1–2	Friendly	Unknown	—
4	30 June 2001	Vanløse Idrætspark, Copenhagen (A)	Greenland	1–4	Friendly	Norbu	5,000
5	14 July 2001	Dreisamstadion, Freiburg (N)	Monaco	1–2	Friendly	Unknown		[6]
6	10 October 2003	Paljor Stadium, Gangtok (A)	Sikkim	1–2	Friendly	Unknown
7	30 May 2006	Millerntor-Stadion, Hamburg (A)	FC St. Pauli	0–7	FIFI Wild Cup		400
8	31 May 2006	Millerntor-Stadion, Hamburg (N)	Gibraltar	0–5	FIFI Wild Cup		400
9	19 November 2006	Zafer Stadium, Güzelyurt (N)	Tajikistan (futsal)	0–3	ELF Cup
10	20 November 2006	Zafer Stadium, Güzelyurt (N)	Crimean Tatars	0–1	ELF Cup
11	21 November 2006	Mağusa Dr. Fazıl Küçük Stadium, Gazimağusa (N)	Northern Cyprus	0–10	ELF Cup

West Papua v  Tibet

18 August 2023 Friendly	West Papua	5–2	Tibet	The Hague, Netherlands
				Stadium: Sportpark De Verademing

Date	Venue	Opponent	Competition	Result
28 June 2013	Marseille, France	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic	International Tournament of Peoples, Cultures and Tribes	12–2
24 June 2013	Marseille, France	Provence	International Tournament of Peoples, Cultures and Tribes	0–22
23 June 2013	Marseille, France	Quebec	International Tournament of Peoples, Cultures and Tribes	0–21
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[permanent dead link]
2 November 2007	Paljor Stadium, Gangtok, Sikkim	Bhutan		0–3
31 October 2007	Paljor Stadium, Gangtok, Sikkim	Bhutan		2–2
4 August 2007	Kirori Mal College, New Delhi	Delhi XI		6–0[dead link]
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	FC 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

General secretaries of the TNFA

Name	period
Kelsang Dhondup	2001–2017
Passang Dorjee	2017–In progress

Honours

• ANFA Cup
  • Runners-up (1): 1985^[7]
• Ladakh Climate Cup
  • Runners-up (1): 2023^[8]

References

External links

• Official website (TNFA)
• Official website (ConIFA)