Tibetan National Sports Association encourages girls involvement in football

Dharamsala, November 23: The Tibetan National Sports Association (TNSA) is aiming to increase the popularity of football amongst girls in Tibetan schools, with the eventual aim of beginning a women’s football team; General Secretary of the TNSA, Kalsang Dhondup, said that “TNSA hopes to have plenty of young talented girl players and form a Tibetan women football team.”At a press conference held on Monday 21 November at the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) school, Dhondup said that a six-day workshop would be held at the school from November 21-26 to provide training to physicial education teachers of nine different Tibetan schools, to enable them to start girls’ football clubs in their schools over the next academic year. The workshop is jointly organized with US football player Cassie Childers. Whilst popular amongst men in and outside of Tibet, football has yet to truly take off amongst women; these latest moves are exciting progress for Tibetan women and bring the exile community’s efforts in line with those of other countries actively working to balance male and female input in sport.’