Tibetan National Football team to play in CONIFA World Football Cup 2018

By Lobsang Tenchoe

DHARAMSALA: September 1: The Tibetan National Football team will travel to London next summer to take part in the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA) World Football Cup 2018.

The Tibetan National Football team earned its berth to the CONIFA World Football Cup 2018 through a wild card entry.

Of the Five teams – Tibet, Tuvalu, Darfur, Sahrawi and Kiribati – vying for the wild card entry into the tournament widely known as the world football cup of forgotten nations, Tibet was awarded the wild card entry according to a report on the CONIFA’s official webpage, Conifa.org.

The CONIFA World Football Cup is an international football tournament organized by CONIFA for football federation of states, minorities, stateless peoples and regions unaffiliated with FIFA.

CONIFA has listed 103 national teams outside FIFA and Tibet is ranked by the CONIFA at 30 with 945 points as of June 19, 2016.

The third edition of the biennial tournament will kick off from May 31 to June 9, 2018. Along with the Tibetan team, fifteen other teams across four continents will take part in the tournament.

Founded on June 7, 2013 CONIFA organized the first World Football Cup in June 2014 in Ostersund, Sweden.