West Papua

 

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vs. Southern Cameroon (unkown result) | UNPO Cup | 2017 in the Netherlands

West Papua is unsurprisingly the Western half of the island of Papua, which today is part of Indonesia. The island is inhabited mostly by Papuans, many of which feel oppressed by the Indonesian government and are looking for independence. This independence movement is usually using the "Morning Star Flag" you will see above.

Today, a large Papuan diaspora in the Netherlands is the loudest voice of the Papuan independence movement. Though, a similarly vocal group of Papuans are based in Australia, too. The Dutch based guys, however, founded a football association that organises a West Papua national team somewhere around 2013. It initially competed in the UNPO Cup, a small tournament usually organised in The Hague, where the namesake NGO "UNPO" is partly based. In 2020, in the last CONIFA Annual General Meeting I co-organised in Jersey, West Papua then joined CONIFA and is a member in that organisation since.

As they joined CONIFA, my friend Jens, who was the Asian director at the time and thus mostly dealt with the team and visited them for a match in The Hague, got some old matchworn shirts from them. I did buy this one from him for around 30€, if I recall correctly. It is from the 2017 UNPO, the last to date. Thanks, Jens, for sorting this one out!

For everyone interested in manufacturers of shirts: This is apparently a Hummel shirt made in China. I doubt that such exist and think it is rather a fake Hummel shirt. As it definitely is matchworn, though, I actually like that.