Jens Brinch, secretary general of the Greenland Sports Federation, called it "an act of idealism against a football world dominated by money."

Certainly, the match between Greenland and Tibet will go down as the one of the strangest internationals ever played.

That it was played at all was a miracle.

The international governing body Fifa, clearly doesn't want to adopt either team.

Tibet, because of the internationally-accepted claim on it by China, and Greenland because of its uninviting climate, geographical remoteness and lack of grass pitches.

Emotional effect

Commercial pressures have recently made Fifa more choosy.

Greenland and Tibet came together at the modest Vanlose Stadium, Copenhagen, without their blessing or the support of the Danish FA.

As if that wasn't bad enough, an air strike in Greenland robbed their football coach, the former Danish national team boss Sepp Piontek, of his entire squad.

A desperate Piontek had to recruit another team made up of Greenlanders based in Denmark players he first met 48 hours before the match.

"The alternative would have been to call the match off and that would have been a catastrophe for everyone," he told me.



