In an effort to wake up ANFA, GoalNepal.com will publish series of views on National league format from our experts, columnists and senior journalists.

After reading the views from GN's Exclusive Columnist Biplav Gautam,  Here is Dinesh Thapa:

Martyrs Memorial League has been in Nepal for years and it is a historic league. But as the time passes by, the format of the historic Martyrs Memorial League is outdated now. Present format of the Martyrs Memorial league will not be helpful in the sustainable development of football in Nepal.

Hence, we need a National Football League with geographical participation in order to develop football in different parts of Nepal. Martyrs Memorial should be continued as it is now.

As the supporter & critic of the Nepalese football; I would like to suggest the following points to ANFA (All Nepal Football Association):

1. Name of the League: The Name of the league should be [Sponsors Name] Nepal Premier League. Example: if the Sponsor is REDBULL; the name of the National Football League will be REDBULL Nepal Premier League (NPL).

2. Management: As we have seen the management of Martyrs Memorial Leagues through the present ANFA officials; I would like to suggest ANFA to hire new Executive Director for the NPL who will be responsible for management of league & will work under the guideline and supervision of ANFA executive committee. The league management committee should be headed by Executive Director and assisted by Administration Director and Operations Director.Administration director will look after the management & marketing of the NPL while the operation director will look after the operation of the NPL. Sufficient staffs should be assigned to each Administration and Operations department.

3. Teams: Total no of Teams in NPL should be 10 (or to the start this can be done by 6 teams)

4. Selecting the teams: I would recommend selecting the teams based in the geographical basis for NPL. Example as below:-

•Nepal APF
•Nepal Police
•Nepal Army
•Pokhara United
•Dharan City FC
•Lalitpur FC
•Kathmandu United FC
•Nepalgunj Rockets FC
•Dhangadhi Riders FC
•FC Birgunj

5. Selecting the teams in the base of their geographical basis would help to get the fan base for the teams. The teams should be auctioned and contracted for certain amount for fixed time with the sponsors. Apart from the above mentioned Departmental teams, all other seven teams should be auctioned to the sponsors and they will hold the right for the clubs for the entire contracted period.

Example: If TUBORG wants to be the sponsor of Pokhara United; the name will be TUBORG pokhara united. Similarly the names will be as following (all examples);

•TUBORG Pokhara United
•WAIWAI Dharan City FC
•NCell Lalitpur FC
•TRINITY Kathmadu United FC
•CARLSBERG Nepalgunj Rockets FC
•WESTERN UNION Dhangadi Riders FC
•NABIL FC Birgunj

This will help for the sponsors to get more mileage and help teams with enough funds for their expenses.

6. Home stadiums of the clubs for NPL: As the matches will be played in Home and Away basis, following are the examples of the HOME stadiums of the NPL teams.

•Nepal APF: Hulchowk
•Nepal Police: Police Headquarters, Naxal
•Nepal Army: Army Headquarters, Bhadrakali
•TUBORG Pokhara United: Pokhara Stadium
•WAIWAI Dharan FC: Dharan
•NCell Lalitpur FC: Lalitpur Tundikhel
•TRINITY Kathmandu United FC: Dasarath Rangasala
•CARLSBERG Nepalgunj Rockets FC: Nepalgunj
•WESTERN UNION DHANGADI FC: Dhangadi
•NABIL FC Birgunj: Birgunj

7. Match Format: Home and Away. Example: NABIL FC BIrgunj will play all its home matches
in Birgunj Stadium while they will travel to other team’s home ground to play away games.

8. All the matches of the NPL should play on Saturday only. As Saturday is holiday in Nepal, playing games in Saturday will help to lure crowd in the venue.

9. Just imagine when Dhangadi plays home with Nepal Police. How much crowd the match will bring and how much support will be there for the home team. Same goes with other teams. As it will generate fan base which is very important for the team and the respective sponsors in the football or any other sports.

This format of NPL will helpful for the sustainable development of football in Nepal (countrywide). If ANFA people read this article (Which I’ll bet they won’t read); they might think that this idea is stupid.

But I have studied the league format of some of the developing countries and they have got the result (sustainable development) in their countries. Otherwise why the hell I want to spend my precious time writing this article although I know that ANFA officials won’t read it and don’t care about it.

But I’ll write because I Love Nepali Football.

Let’s keep the ball rolling. Comments Are most welcome.

BY: Dinesh Thapa (Goal Nepal Exclusive Columnist)
nepalsport@gmail.com