I can’t think of another association that is as frustrating as ANFA. Supposed to be the governing body for football in our nation, ANFA has managed to stomp on the hopes and dreams of loyal football fans all over Nepal while also failing to ensure a proper future for the football players.

Let’s look at how ANFA fared under Ganesh Thapa who led the Football Association for the past 20 years:

 Failure to professionalize the football league:

Nepal’s national league is a joke in itself. It runs for around two months. Players are made to play continuously with breaks of only 3 and sometimes even two days. And once the league is over after a two month time period, players are forced to either go
abroad looking for opportunities or end up playing local football tournaments around Nepal for their income.

ANFA needs to understand raising the prize money to 1 crore doesn’t mean a better and more professional league, a longer league where the fitness and income of players are made sure throughout the year makes for a professional league. Of course conducting the league once a year would help, but ANFA don’t seem to be aware of that.

 Production of youth players to supplement the national squad:

ANFA’s idea of producing youth players is baffling to say the least. They select around 15-20 players of every age group train them and expect them to become the superstars of the future. According to ANFA’s site, there are currently 58 players of age groups U12, U15 and U17 in ANFA Academy of Satdobato. Add 50 odd more players coming from other two technical centers, and another 50 players coming through open trails and the Police and Army. Is training and producing less than 200 players enough to take our national team to the Asian Cup or deep into the World Cup qualification rounds. A look into ANFA’s site and one can find cliché’s about how development of grassroots is important for growth of football in the country and how no nation has prospered without proper grassroots program, but it is ANFA and its leaders who are most far away from that concept.

 Nepotism in the national team selection:

Selection in the national team of Nepal is as clean and fair as the water in the Bagmati River. If you needed any evidence of that just look at the continued snub of Karna Limbu or how Devendra Tamang’s name was excluded from the squad travelling for the Bangabandhu Cup saying he was injured while he was playing a football tournament for his club or maybe even look at tweets from Patrick Aussems on how ANFA neglected his suggestions and selected different personnel. Things haven’t changed at all as even now it is ANFA who is selecting the teams rather than the head coach of Nepal.

After 20 years of Ganesh Thapa and a lot of suffering for every football fan, voters finally have a chance to rid ANFA of his shadow. And with the elections almost knocking on our doorstep, will we see the same storyline continue with current President Narendra Shrestha, a disciple of Thapa, winning the elections or will we finally see the changes made that Nepali fans are desperately craving for? We all know which side Nepali fans are rooting for!!!