ANFA gears up for National League Following postponement of the National League twice, the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) is finally all geared up to hold the tournament by the last week of December. ANFA said the National League would now be held as it has leased the Dasharath Stadium for four months and also struck a deal with the sponsor. The league would be held in home-and-away format. According to the new format, matches will be held on Fridays and Saturdays and each team will play one match a week. Martyrs Memorial League, the top flight league, was scrapped after NSC decided to renovate Dasharath Stadium in April. Though ANFA had cited this as the major reason, the underlying issue was the protest by four top flight clubs -- Machhindra, Himalayan Sherpa, Saraswoti and Friends-demanding outstanding dues and preparation fees. Earlier, the sponsors were reluctant to sign a sponsorship deal due to controversy over irregularities by ANFA President Ganesh Thapa. “As we have both leased the Dasharath Stadium and struck sponsorship deal, we are prepared to hold the tournament at the earliest. We do not want the league to affect other major regional tournaments like Aaha Gold Cup and Budha Subba Gold Cup,” said Indraman Tuladhar, general secretary of ANFA. “We will decide the kick-off date after holding consultations with participating clubs keeping in mind other big tournaments outside Kathmandu. But it all depends on the promotional strategy of the sponsors. We are hopeful that everything will be finalized within two weeks,” added Tuladhar. After finalizing things with the sponsors, ANFA is looking forward to holding consultations with clubs prior to registering players. “These are not big agendas. Since we have leased the stadium and struck the sponsorship deal, the league will be organized at the earliest,” said Tuladhar. Along with Dasharath Stadium, matches will also be played at the Army and Armed Police Force grounds. ANFA plans to finalize at least eight teams, though it had previously planned to field 11 teams, six valley-based top flight clubs and five district teams, in the tournament. ANFA is also positive about participation of league champion Manang Marshyangdi Club, Three Star, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and Sankata Club. Runner-up Machhindra FC has been boycotting tournaments organized by ANFA as the latter has failed to pay the runner-up prize money to the club. Following withdrawal of Machhindra, ANFA had included Tribhuvan Army in the tournament. The league was originally planned to start from November 1, before it was postponed for December 8. Kailali, Jhapa, Morang, Rupandehi and Makwanpur will represent the district teams in the Rs 22.5 million prize-money tournament. Matches will be organized in the districts only after studying the conditions of the pitches.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 15:31:28 +0000
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