Football on the Roof of the World

Date: Friday, 02-July-2010 Claude Arpi
www.claudearpi.blogspot.com
June 29, 2010

As my column on the World Cup in Rediff.comcontinues, my thoughts turns to Tibet.

Why is Tibet not represented in the FIFA?

Why are the following countries represented andnot Tibet? Here is a non-exhaustive list: SolomonIslands, Comoros, Mauritius, Palestine, CaymanIslands, Samoa, Seychelles Belize, Turks andCaicos Islands, Tonga, Brunei Darussalam, Tahiti,British Virgin Islands, Guam, Bhutan Macau Aruba,US Virgin Islands, Timor-Leste , Anguilla,Montserrat, American Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Andorra or Faroe Island.

One does not know about the existence of half of these 'countries'.

At least everyone is aware where Tibet islocated? And it is not even a question ofterritoriality, Tahiti being very much a part of France.

In the 1940's, the Tibetans already lovedfootball and practiced on the Roof of the World.I don't know from where they were getting theirjabulanis; probably from India as China had notbecome the manufacturing hub it is today.

The Tibetans would play friendly matches againstthe staff of the British and other foreign missions in Lhasa.

Training at 12,000 feet must have been a tough proposal for the forengis.

Claude Arpi captures the fan's passion forfootball in an ongoing e-mail exchange with IvanCrasto, Rediff.com's Sports Editor.

Read Claude's e-mails as listerd below here:
http://sports.rediff.com/report/2010/jun/26/football-world-cup-2010-specials-claude-arpi.htm

Read Claude's first e-mail
You can find his second e-mail here
And his third here
And his fourth here
And his 5th: Revolution is a French sport
And his 6th: World Cup balls
And his 7th: Why is refereeing so poor in the World Cup?
And his 8th: The sinking of Old Europe
And his 9th Did you see the most ridiculous goal of the competition?

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