By Tenzin Lekdhen
DHARAMSHALA, Mar. 23: The apex Tibetan sports body Tibetan National Sports Association (TNSA) is set to host the first CONIFA Women World Football Cup this summer in North India’s Ponta Cholsum Tibetan Settlement. The sports organisation announced in a Facebook post with a photo of the letter from the CONIFA’s President. The Tibetan Women’s National Team and others were set to compete last year in Csikszereda, Romania, for the first CONIFA Women World Cup, but was cancelled due to the pandemic.
CONIFA’s President Per-Anders Blind, in the letter to TNSA, wrote, “The tournament is for sure a historical moment for football, it will be the first-ever Women World Championship hosted for teams outside FIFA and will reach a global attention.”
The letter further reads, “It’s an honour for CONIFA to contribute to the celebration of the Tibetan people and educate the world about your beauty, history, culture, traditions and by this also contribute to a better world for all.”
Rinchen Lama, the Director of TNSA, told Phayul that, “with the recent announcement, we don’t yet have sponsors for the tournament. But with three months on our hands, we are looking at plans to raise funds to cover the expenses.”
The tournament is set to kick off on 1 July and will conclude on 6 July, on His Holiness’ the Dalai Lama’s birthday, to which Mr blind remarked that the CONIFA team is looking forward to celebrate.
The CONIFA, acronym for Confederation of Independent Football Associations, “is a football federation for all associations outside FIFA.” The federation, founded on June 7th, 2013, is a global non-profit organisation that is inclusive of all international football teams regardless of their political backgrounds. Teams can be from “nations, de-facto nations, regions, minority peoples, and sports isolated territories.”
According to SheKicks.net, a women’s football magazine, the teams participating in the tournament will be confirmed on 31 March, “with the draw ceremony scheduled for 24 April.”
