SportGibraltar

Football: Tibet's political difficulties before their encounter with Gibraltar in the Wild Cup 2006

Dharamshala May 19 - If France was against the Tibetan football team playing on its soil, Germany had a completely different opinion. The Tibetan national football team were granted visas today to travel to Germany, the venue of the 2006 World Cup soccer tournament, to participate in the Wild Cup, a football tournament for nations which were ignored by the world's football governing body FIFA.

Just three days before the world focuses its attention on the first game of the 2006 World Cup in Germany a few underdogs of the game will play against each other in Hamburg, in what is dubbed as the Mini World Cup.

Greenland, Gibraltar, Zanzibar and Tibet along with two German teams are competing for the Wild Cup at Millerntor Stadium of St. Pauli, a soccer club in Hamburg with a long tradition of the game.

18 Tibetan players with their coach D C Phuntsok Namgyal and manager Kalsang Dhondup will leave Delhi on 25 May to take part in the six team football tournament which begins on 29 May and goes on till 3 June.

The Tibetan national football team was denied visa to travel to France in September last year. The French Embassy reasoned that many Tibetans have illegally migrated to France.

Tibetans here believe that what the 1998 world champions of the sport did to the Tibetans was embarrassing and a move taken under pressure from China. This was reversed by this year's host of the most popular sporting event in the world.

Whether the Tibetan squad wins the tournament or not is not the question now, says many lovers of the game. "This tournament in Hamburg will surely have games after which everyone leaves the field triumphant", says Tenzin, a fan of the Tibetan squad.

The tournament was organised by the FIFI (Federation of International Football Independents).

Carat, a German company and production house called Western Star are arranging the tournament which will be broadcast live on sports channel called DSF.

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