Football has always been entangled with notions of national identity. It’s not a simple relationship, nor a consistent one, but its unitary power is a big part of what makes the international game so special. Whilst most of us associate international matches with poorly sung anthems, flags protruding from car roofs and hotly contested debates about XI inclusions, for others even being considered an international football team is a gratifying and validating experience.
It’s no wonder, then, that Tibet’s first football match was the subject of much controversy. The 14th Dalai Lama fled from China to India in 1959, and since then a number of Tibetans have gone into exile; an estimated 108,000 Tibetans live in exile in Nepal, Bhutan, and India, with the international diaspora totalling around 150,000 – the fluidity of the diaspora has helped the Tibetans in exile keep their culture and traditions alive.
Tibet’s first game as a football team occurred in 1999, rather bizarrely against a team of players fielded by Italian not-for-profit rock band Dynamo Rock. The band had something of a soft spot for Tibet and contacted Tibetan officials to see if a football match was a possibility. Kasur Jetsun Pema (the Dalai Lama’s sister) helped organize and select players in the Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe in India. This team travelled to Bologna, Italy and played an exhibition match against a team made up of singers and band members. The Tibetans emerged 5-3 victors, but more importantly this match laid the foundations for a Tibetan national team who by 2001 would have played their first international match.
On a ‘bicycle tour’ of Tibet some time in 1997, a Dane called Michael Nybrandt had the idea – in a dream – of creating a Tibetan national team. Over the next couple of years whilst studying in Copenhagen, he thought about working towards this, but it only came to fruition as the result of a 3rd year university project, after which he presented results to the Tibetan exile government, who were already interested after the team’s ’99 composition. The Tibetan government in exile agreed to Nybrandt’s proposition and the Tibetan National Football Association was formed, with Kasur Jetsun Pema as president.
Once players were chosen, Tibet needed to find an opponent. Due to FIFA’s rules, FIFA members can only play matches – official or exhibition – against other FIFA members, which ruled out plenty of options for the Tibetan team.