ANFA mismanagement
When Narendra Lal Shrestha was elected the new president of the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA), the football governing body in the country, in October, he vowed to bring Nepali football “back on track”. The insinuation was that Nepali football had gone off-course during the 22-year reign of Ganesh Thapa, the disgraced ex-ANFA chief who was booted out of office following his suspension by FIFA on corruption charges. But Shrestha’s promises to improve the state of Nepali football ring allow following an egregious oversight by the new-look ANFA. Last Wednesday, the players and managers of the national football league champion, Three Star Club, were eagerly checking the website of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). They wanted to see which teams they would be playing against in the playoff-round of the AFC Cup club championship, in which they were participating after winning a qualifying tournament in Mongolia. But the name of their team was nowhere to be found on the website. Only later did they learn that they would actually not be taking part in the playoffs as ANFA had not bothered to register the club for the tournament, a mandatory requirement.
It is not that AFNA officials were not notified. In fact, AFC wrote to the Nepali football governing body three times, asking it to get Three Star registered for the tournament, pronto. But ANFA officials say they assumed that as the team had already qualified for the playoff round, they need not bother with registration. This is a pathetic excuse. If the participation was guaranteed why would AFC officials repeatedly write to their Nepali counterparts to hurry up? In a belated effort to make amends, following Wednesday’s developments, ANFA officials sent an official request to AFC, asking it to reconsider its decision to exclude Three Star from the playoffs. AFC promptly shot it down as the Nepali team’s spot had already been given to Mongolia’s Erchim FC. We don’t know how ANFA will compensate Three Star, which had reportedly already spent around Rs 7 million in preparations for the Asia-level club tournament. But it’s not just a question of lost money.
It is also a body blow to the image of Nepali football abroad and an indication of the inefficient and unprofessional way it is governed.
Most importantly, Three Star’s win in Mongolia represented a rare success story in Asia for a Nepali club. But the great expectations that this win had sparked among Nepali football supporters have been cruelly crushed thanks to ANFA’s negligence. The members of the club, many of whom also represent the country, have also been deprived of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to hone their skills by playing against better teams.
Incidents like these suggest that the leadership change in ANFA has not made the body any cleaner or more professional. Unless national football is better managed any success we have in the international arena will be sporadic, purely a matter of chance. To paraphrase our former monarchs, the fate of Nepali football seems to be completely in the hands of Lord Pashupatinath these days.
Kanchan Sharma Regmi
