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Delhi hosts India-Tibet friendly match
The capital played host to a historic Tibet-India friendly football match on Saturday.
- Suprita Das
- Updated: August 06, 2007 06:05 PM IST
Read Time: 2 min
New Delhi:
It's Tibet's way of protesting against the Organizing Committee of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games and telling them that Tibet should be fielded in the games as separate country and not a part of China.
After several objections from the Indian government and change of venue as many as four times, the Tibetan People's Movement finally managed to arrange for the friendly match with an Indian side in the capital.
The football team members and their supporters were seen praying before the historic match against a Delhi eleven side.
They were doing so for more than just a win from the match, freedom from the illegal occupation of their country by China.
As a result of this occupation, Tibet is not being allowed to participate in the Beijing Olympics next year.
"We want to give a message to the Chinese Olympic committee that we also have the capability to play in the 2008 games," said a Tibetan footballer.
It was a clean sweep for the Tibetans as they beat the Delhi eleven side 6-0. But probably attaining freedom won't be that easy after all.
Their hope, nothing can help them spread the message better than sports.
"Through sports, its a common thing, there is win and loss, encouraging when they are trying to get freedom and do that through football," said V Baskaran, Former Hockey Coach
This win in the football match is only a small step towards a huge goal. The road ahead is long, and it's certainly not smooth.
In fact, there are reports that the Indian authorities are already unhappy and have threatened to take action against the participating Indians.
The capital played host to a historic Tibet-India friendly football match on Saturday. It's Tibet's way of protesting against the Organizing Committee of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games and telling them that Tibet should be fielded in the games as separate country and not a part of China.
After several objections from the Indian government and change of venue as many as four times, the Tibetan People's Movement finally managed to arrange for the friendly match with an Indian side in the capital.
The football team members and their supporters were seen praying before the historic match against a Delhi eleven side.
They were doing so for more than just a win from the match, freedom from the illegal occupation of their country by China.
As a result of this occupation, Tibet is not being allowed to participate in the Beijing Olympics next year.
"We want to give a message to the Chinese Olympic committee that we also have the capability to play in the 2008 games," said a Tibetan footballer.
It was a clean sweep for the Tibetans as they beat the Delhi eleven side 6-0. But probably attaining freedom won't be that easy after all.
Their hope, nothing can help them spread the message better than sports.
"Through sports, its a common thing, there is win and loss, encouraging when they are trying to get freedom and do that through football," said V Baskaran, Former Hockey Coach
This win in the football match is only a small step towards a huge goal. The road ahead is long, and it's certainly not smooth.
In fact, there are reports that the Indian authorities are already unhappy and have threatened to take action against the participating Indians.
Topics mentioned in this article
Football
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