In these current times of obscene weekly wage levels for Premier League footballers fuelled by extraordinary deals with broadcasters it is nice to hear of a grass-roots story associated with the sport.
There was of course the recent honouring of a goal scored by Stephanie Roche in Irish Football in its attaining second place in the FIFA 2014 Goal of the Year Award beating many of the best male players in the world.
However, the most heart-warming recent story has involved the national football team of Bhutan.
The tiny landlocked country, known as Land of the Thunder Dragon, wedged between India and China has struggled to overcome geographical, social and economic difficulties which to a certain extent have to be well established before any thoughts can be given to leisure or recreation of the population. The hereditary rulers, the Wangchuck Dynasty have been in power for the last hundred years and have controlled citizens through imposing compulsory national dress and through the philanthropic ideas of Gross National Happiness whereby a happy harmony is imposed balancing the spiritual and the material. The Buddhist Culture is strong and has caused conflict with an ethnic Nepalese enclave in recent years. The landscape in the Himalayas is striking but tourism is controlled.
The national sport of archery has been dominant and it was only until students, studying overseas, returned and brought back the idea of football that things started to progress. There had been no exposure to the world of football prior to this particularly as television had been banned until the late 1990's.
Bhutan joined FIFA in the year 2000 giving eligibility to compete in Asian Tournaments and a few Friendly matches with near neighbours but still involving great distances to be travelled.
The team was made up of part timers and those in education with sparse resources and skills to call upon.
There was some early success with wins against Afghanistan, Montserrat and Guam but in the 18 games since 2008 Bhutan failed to run out winners in any form of competition.
Consequently, the outcome has been that Bhutan have been, officially, the worst international team of the 209 member associations within FIFA with no points earned.
The standard of play or rather the extent of being outclassed was emphasised by a defeat to Kuwait some 15 years ago which at 20-0 remains a record score. This did prompt additional investment in the sport with infrastructure changes including artificial turf pitches, an Academy Structure and a support network of medical and ancillary services.
The players have seen a more formal pay regime put in place although at £100 per month there is no comparison to even the lower league salaries in Europe and the wider world.
In the second preliminary round of qualification for the 2018 World Cup a few weeks ago, Bhutan were to play an away tie in Sri Lanka, themselves ranked 173rd by FIFA.
The hosts fully expected a bit of a goal-fest and before the match media interviews with Sri Lanka's national coach and captain aired a feeling of being belittled at having to play such a lowly band of no-hopers.
The fixture list for the early qualifiers included Cambodia v Macau, Timor Leste v Mongolia and Yemen v Pakistan but Bhutan trumped the lot by winning in Columbo by a solitary goal by Tshering Dorji.
Hopes have been heightened for further points to lift Bhutan out of the bottom place of the rankings and the return match in the Changlimithang Stadium, ringed by snow capped mountains in Thimpu is eagerly awaited.
After the historic away win there was no bonus payment to the squad and certainly no trip down to the Bentley or Porsche Car Showrooms to browse the latest models as befitting top footballers.
The team did celebrate however in a visit to a KFC Fast Food Restaurant just down the road from the hotel.
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