Football

The long-simmering feud within the country’s football governing body resurfaced on Sunday, with most of its central members calling for a central committee meeting barely two weeks after its formation. 

Fourteen executive members have called for an urgent central committee meeting to decide on six agendas.

A letter was emailed to ANFA President Pankaj Bikram Nemwang and General Secretary Kiran Rai on Sunday are currently out of the capital. “The letter with be registered with ANFA in a few days.”

The letter mentions that it is necessary to discuss ANFA’s representation at the AFC Congress, the proposed representatives and candidates, and the committee and officials as per the association’s statute.

Similarly, they said that it is necessary to discuss the representation of ANFA at the FIFA Congress to be held in March, the FIFA World Cup tickets received by Nepal, the National League and the Martyr’s Memorial League. 

The ANFA Central Committee last met on September 26, followed by the Special General Assembly a day later. 

Those demanding the meeting include Vice-presidents Birat Jung Shahi, Dirgha Bahadur KC and Deepak Khatiwada, and members  Bharat Bahadur Thapa, Mahendra Chhetri, Maniraj Bista, Manish Joshi, Ramesh Byanjankar, Ravindra Chand, Rupesh Adhikari, Sarila Shrestha and Tikaram Lama.

While a copy of the letter bears the signatures of 12 individuals, one of the complainants said two members could not sign the letter as they were out of the station, but they had consented to the demand. 

As per the ANFA statute, the president must convene a meeting within 21 days of such a demand being made by one-third of executive committee members.

The ANFA has been embroiled in a new controversy after it came to light that President Nemwang had discreetly registered his candidacy as a member of the Asian Football Federation (AFC) election without discussing it in the committee. Consequently, two-thirds of the office-bearers elected from different panels opposed Nemwang’s move.

Seven members from each of Nemwang’s and erstwhile president Karma Tshering Sherpa’s panels had raised their voices against the ANFA president’s move. However, some members of the Nemwang panel refuted the claims, saying they did not sign the complaint. 

Seventeen ANFA members, including three vice presidents, were reported to have sent a joint letter to the game’s continental body by email on Friday, demanding the cancellation of Nemwang’s candidacy.