Saturday 23 February 2008

Overseas Coverage

Outcasts has received some good coverage overseas including Idrottsforum.org in Sweden, Placar magazine in Brazil, Politiken newspaper in Denmark, Seracittà in Italy, So Foot in France, Sermitsiaq in Greenland and the Saipan Tribune in North Marianas.

I did an interview with Caprisport on Italian TV, the book has been reviewed on US blog cultureofsoccer and I was interviewed on the same site. The book has also been covered in Kosovo.

Many of the reviews are not in English but below is a translation of an article on Outcasts! from Swiss newspaper Woz. The original in Swiss German can be viewed here

Greenland vs. Tibet by Pascal Claude (translated by Ute Gundacker)

The Danish footballer Michael Nybrandt rides with his bicycle through Tibet. One night, he dreams that Tibet has his own football team. The dream is haunting him. Back in Copenhagen, Nybrandt graduates a course in an economy school. The school advises him to take hazards but be in balance with your body and soul, content and shape/form. Nybrandt remembers his dream. Through the Tibetan exile community he tries to find contacts to people, who are interested in football.

On the 30 June 2001 the Tibetan national team plays against Greenland, wearing Danish tricots by the sporting goods producer Hummel. Tibet looses in Copenhagen in front of 5.000 bystanders one to four. Hummel sells after that thousands of Tibetan tricots. This story can be read in Steve Menarys book 'Outcasts! The Lands That FIFA Forgot'.

Menary went on to a journey through the world for his book, going from Lapland to Gibraltar and from Guernsey to Tahiti. On more than 200 pages he tells about football teams who feel skipped by FIFA, about organisations from outcasts and from oil platforms who want to be members of these organisations.Menary writes about the criteria of the FIFA , why the Danish Faroe Islands are FIFA countries but not the Danish Greenland. About the differences between FIFA-Palestine and Not-FIFA-Tibet.

What's the difference? And what is the difference between the 192 Uno states and the 207 FIFA ones? This book gives revealing answers, and because of the precise collection of numbers and facts, it has lexical value, with a good sense of humour. In the chapter about Tibet, Menary mentions also the Wild Cup at St. Pauli in spring 2006. There the outcasts met for a little WM. Thanks to the best Tibetan player Dorjee Tsawa, the Tibetan national team was a strong one. The Swiss Tsawa, pro at St.Gallen, Zurich, Bellinzona, Xamax and Schaffhausen and now helps in the junior program of FCZ, played for the Wild Cup his first international match for Tibet. "I just wanted to play for Greenland, but it was in the season and therefore, I couldn't take part in it," he tells on the phone.

Although zero scores and a goal rapport from zero to twelve at the games in Hamburg, he has this one in good memories: "We were a conglomerate team, my brother and I, two amateurs from Zurich, one from the USA, the rest from India and Nepal. The Wild Cup was brilliant organised. The moment they played our hymn, was really emotional. Definitely I want to play more games for Tibet."

Wherever Tibet plays as a national team, there is a note of protest by the Chinese embassy. For Tsawas rear gunner Karma Samdup the main reason why the Tibetan national team should play as often as possible. "I like the thought that the Chinese embassy has to deal with us", he says in 'Outcasts!'. Tsawa has the same opinion: "It is better to get the attention by sport, than only by demonstrating. Therefore I support the Olympic team of Tibet. They knew from the first beginning that they wouldn't have a chance to take part, but they stand in public."

Tsawa doesn't have thoughts about sanctions from the side of FIFA, who threatens the Danish clubs with punishment 2001, if they make their stadiums available for Tibet. "Our many stateless, who defeat the Chinese pass and can't enter any county," he says, "that's the problem.