Tibet

 

Kalsang Topgyal (Gulladhalla FC)
vs. Northern Cyprus (1:3) | CONIFA WFC | 2018 in London

I have a bit of an interesting history with the Tibetan national team. I convinced them to join CONIFA around 2015ish and tried to get them to the 2016 World Football Cup, unsuccessfully, as they were lacking the funds. I was more successful in 2018 then, when the team indeed made it to London for the World Football Cup. I met with the Tibetan ambassador in London months before to help preparing the trip. As part of their trip, they hoped to play a friendly match in Germany, which I helped to organise. That got cancelled then, as the German FA, which just struck a multi-million dollar deal with the Chinese Football Association, forbid the club to play Tibet. They even threatened to kick the club from a Southern German small town out of the league system at once. Still, the team at least made it to the World Football Cup, where they got into a group with the reigning World Champion Abkhazia, the current European vice champion Northern and Karpatalya, a Hungarian-speaking minority from Ukraine, which would win the entire tournament. Everyone expected Tibet to be absolutely thrashed three times - but to the surprise of many, they actually played very well. They still lost all the group matches, but held Northern Cyprus, e.g., to a draw until very late in the game. Kalsang Topgyal scored the Tibetan goal in it. Following the tournament, the Tibetan ambassador gave me a ceremonial shawl as a gesture of gratitude, an item I still value a lot and keep as a personal treasure to this day.

Yet, I never got hold of a shirt of Tibet. The FA could never provide me one and even in London, I had no chance to get my hold on one of the incredible shirts of the team. At some point, I simply gave up asking and bought one for 70ish Euro online. It is an absolutely stunning shirt by COPA, although the away shirt was even better. I am more than happy with it, given I have seen it in matches I co-organised and it is just a beautiful shirt overall. I wish the Tibetan team all the best for the future and hope they will have a chance to play in major international tournaments again one day.