AFP, Colombo :
The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, officially the worst team in international football, begins its first ever World Cup qualifying campaign Thursday on the balmy shores of the Indian Ocean.
Three years before football’s elite do battle at the finals in Russia, Bhutan and their hosts Sri Lanka are among the 12 lowest-ranked teams in the Asian confederation who will kick off the worldwide qualification marathon.
No team from the Indian sub-continent has ever qualified for the finals, a record that seems unlikely to change any time soon despite a growing interest in football in the cricket-mad region.
India and neighbouring Pakistan are joint 171st in the latest FIFA rankings while Sri Lanka are 173rd.
But the dubious honour of propping up the 209-nation league table falls to Bhutan, a remote and mountainous region that has been nicknamed both the “Land of the Thunder Dragon” and the world’s “Last Shangri-La”.
Trying to adapt to conditions in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s palm-fringed coastal capital, will add to the challenges for players more accustomed to a backdrop of snow-tinged peaks.
The match kicks off at 3:00 pm (0930 GMT) at the Sugathadasa Stadium where temperatures should be around 30-35 degrees Celsius (90 Fahrenheit).
In a bid to acclimatise, Bhutan have spent the build-up at a training camp in Thailand where temperatures have hit 38 degrees.
“We have made good use of the time we had, spending a couple of weeks in Bangkok, that has really helped us to adapt to the weather and the heat,” Bhutan’s skipper Karma Shedrup Tshering said on YouTube.
“We are expecting to win, but you never know in the game of football so we just go there, give our best,” added the 28-year-old midfielder.
While Bhutan’s football federation has begun paying a select group a monthly fee of 10,000 ngultrum (around $160), most players have other jobs or are studying.
One of the few professionals is striker Chencho Gyeltshen who plays for Thai side Buriram United.
