DHARAMSHALA, November 22: The Tibetan National Sports Association (TNSA) has laid out plans to popularise the game of football among the girl child in Tibetan schools with an eye on forming a Tibetan women football team in the near future.
At a press conference held Monday at the Tibetan Children’s Village School (TCV), Upper Dharamshala, Kalsang Dhondup, General Secretary, TNSA announced the plans.
“The TNSA based in Dharamsala is organising a six-day workshop at the TCV School Dharamsala from November 21 – 26, 2011 for physical education teachers of nine Tibetan schools that will start girls’ football clubs in their schools from the coming academic year,” Dhondup said.
Pointing out that the “primary objective” of the workshop was to make the game of football “more popular among the girls” at a grass root level, Dhondup, who has served the TNSA since its formal establishment in 2002 said that the six-day training will also equip the physical education teachers at the school level with the basic technique and strategies of the game.
“TNSA hopes to have plenty of young talented girl players and form a Tibetan women football team,” the General Secretary asserted.
In a release, TNSA said that the workshop is being jointly organised with Cassie Childers, a women football player from the US and will also feature expert talks on sports psychology, sports medicine, and yoga.
The ‘beautiful game’ was first introduced to an independent Tibet by the British forces in the early 20th century and within a few years, gained popularity with the Tibetans leading to the formation of celebrated teams such as Lhasa United, the Potala, the Drapchi, and Bodyguard Regiment.
The Tibetan Men’s Football Team played its first exhibition match in 1998 in Italy and since then, the team has played against several national football teams and toured countries including Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland.
