Fifa World Cup in Bhutan

Football, the global religion, like any other country, has taken our country completely to another level of global excitement and celebration. Today, we have every kids wearing jersey of famous footballers, idolizing the football gods, and enjoying the every bit of game not just in television but also in a playing ground. The artificial turf, which is the only above standard football ground for us at the moment is always occupied with the football matches from morning 8 AM to 12AM midnight. And the heavy fee which ranges from Nu.2500-Nu. 5000 per match doesn’t deter people to come all the way from Trongsa to come and play a one and half hour match. It just shows how much Bhutanese are into the football.

Even with such craze, Bhutan participating in the FIFA world cup remains the most dreaded dream of ours. Bhutan’s only international tournament is SAFF championship, where Bhutan remains an undisputed underdog of the tournament. The tournament of course helps our players give the exposure, however, whether Bhutan have the capacity to host the tournament or not, we have not been able to get the nods from the governing body to organize it in our country.

FIFA world cup trophy which will be landing here in Bhutan. Photo courtesy; www.kuenselonline.com

TheFifa world cup trophy, as a part of its world tour would be brought to Bhutan in December. Fifa with more members than the UNO, kind of deserves a big applaud for promoting the event and in a way, bringing the globe together for the common cause of leisure and oneness. For Bhutanese aspiring footballers, this prestigious trophy landing in our soil would surely serve to instill the new enthusiasm. And it would surely inspire our Football Federation to promote and help the football education receive enough attention and instigation.  Of course, BFF is already up with another artificial turf at Changjiji which translates into more facility, more football, more enjoyment and more financial outcome. 

The other final trophy

Well, for the record, we are past that 2002 event where FIFA organised the football match called ''the other final", when Bhutan took on Montserrat, then the two lowest ranking countries in FIFA ranking, coinciding with the FIFA world cup final 2002. Today we are 207th out of 209 countries. However, Montserrat has moved on to 193rd.