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| The standing Buddha gets to watch all matches for free |
Our introduction to Bhuanese soccer came when we first met Pema, a likeable, down to earth character who also happens to be captain of the national football team. Turns Pema is a bit of national stalwart having first begun playing for the national team in 2002. He's invited us to many matches at Thimphu's Changlimithang Stadium which also happens to built on the site of a famous 19th century Bhutanese routing of the Tibetans in which many a leather-booted horseman ran many a rusty sword through his whiskered Buddhist neighbour. victory of the in.
At the first match we attended, a visiting opposition player from Sikkim was injured badly enough to require a stretcher. None being available, players broke the frame off an advertising sideboard and used the sideboard instead. Genius! Such resourcefulness and wonderful disregard for the advertising industry! In another recent game, the match had to be interrupted three separate times while a streaker was escorted from the pitch. But instead of a fat, balding man, smothered in canola oil flashing his jangly bits around the pitch for a bit of media attention and drinking money from his mates (as would be the case back home), the streaker on the Bhutanese football field looked like this:
A Thimphu stray just heading out for a stroll.
Pema's also told us some great stories about what it was like to play in The Other Final - an international friendly match organised by FIFA and played on June 30 2002, at the same time as the FIFA World Cupgrand final between Germany and Brazil was being played in Japan.
I've been a bit obsessed with this match because it was played between the two lowest ranked teams in the world, Bhutan and the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat and being a sucker for an underdog, I love the idea of a match between the two biggest 'losers' in world football at the time
The match was actually the focus of a doco made by a Dutch film director who follows the journeys of the players in the lead up to the game and actually creates a fascinating insight into how two such small and underdeveloped countries (in terms of sheer footballing muscle) could have the creativity, good humour and chutzpah to pull together such a unique social and sporting occasion.
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| Monks waiting for the game to start |
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| Changlimithang Stadium |
At the first match we attended, a visiting opposition player from Sikkim was injured badly enough to require a stretcher. None being available, players broke the frame off an advertising sideboard and used the sideboard instead. Genius! Such resourcefulness and wonderful disregard for the advertising industry! In another recent game, the match had to be interrupted three separate times while a streaker was escorted from the pitch. But instead of a fat, balding man, smothered in canola oil flashing his jangly bits around the pitch for a bit of media attention and drinking money from his mates (as would be the case back home), the streaker on the Bhutanese football field looked like this:
A Thimphu stray just heading out for a stroll.
Pema's also told us some great stories about what it was like to play in The Other Final - an international friendly match organised by FIFA and played on June 30 2002, at the same time as the FIFA World Cupgrand final between Germany and Brazil was being played in Japan.
I've been a bit obsessed with this match because it was played between the two lowest ranked teams in the world, Bhutan and the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat and being a sucker for an underdog, I love the idea of a match between the two biggest 'losers' in world football at the time
The match was actually the focus of a doco made by a Dutch film director who follows the journeys of the players in the lead up to the game and actually creates a fascinating insight into how two such small and underdeveloped countries (in terms of sheer footballing muscle) could have the creativity, good humour and chutzpah to pull together such a unique social and sporting occasion.
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