The recently concluded Martyr's Memorial ‘A’ Division League football tournament marked with an endless array of twists and turns will be remembered for a long time.

The competition panned out like a suspense movie,keeping football enthusiasts scratching their heads and guessing all the way to the end. The end result turned out to be a big surprise. Newly promoted Church Boys United based in Balkumari in Lalitpur district made history by becoming the league champions. Since they made it to C-Division in 2019, they have not looked back.

It has been a remarkable success story for the winners. In 2021 and 2022 they crowned themselves C- Division and B- Division champions respectively. Now they have made it three in a row by lifting the top-flight domestic league A -Division title. After Manang Marshyangdi Club,they have become the only second team to accomplish the unprecedented feat. The new champions coached by former international player and men’s national team coach Bal Kumar Maharjhan were worthy title winners.

The new champions got rewarded for their determined collective efforts, commitment. persistence,sheer hard work and winning mentality, Despite trailing front runners Jawalakhel Youth Club (JYC) for the most part,they never lost ground and managed to keep themselves within striking distance. When the front runners stumbled,they cashed in on the advantage and kept their title chase relevant by winning and drawing key matches when it mattered most. They reached the finish line atop the league standings, which ultimately earned them the championship title. Congratulations,Church Boys United for the incredible success!You fully deserved it.

In retrospect,the competition was a topsy turvy affair with an unexpected conclusion and relegation drama aplenty. Such was the uncertainty that it came down to the last few matches to decide the relegation fate of teams. The league was played in thirteen rounds in three venues.After every round of the competition,the teams’ fortunes and standings dramatically fluctuated. As a result,the race to the finish was wide open. It was quite a surprise to see the big guns in the likes of Machhindra Football Club(MFC),Three Star Club(TSC), Manang Marshyangdi Club(MMC), Nepal Army Football Club and Nepal Police Football Club struggle and bite the dust.

They underperformed by their standards and looked a pale shadow of their former. MMC and TSC at some point in the competition had their relegation nightmare moments and barely managed to survive. Likewise,Nepal Police dangerously languished in the relegation zone for a long spell of time. However,they fought back with a strong performance in the final stages and climbed to an amazing third place finish in the league.

Defending champions MFC paid dearly for their inconsistency but managed to finish the league engagement in second place. Instead of Church Boys United, MFC will represent Nepal in the AFC Cup because the former is sans the AFC Club license,a mandatory requirement to participate in the tournament. JYC made a hash of a golden opportunity to win the league title.They were atop the leaderboard for a considerable period of time and seemed destined for league glory, but they let the chance slip by and finished a disappointing 4th.

The rest of the field that finished in mid-table or bottom of the table must deal with the disappointment of performing poorly and try out new actions to get improved results moving forward. Looking back at the league standings midway through, both FC Khumaltar and APF FC were cruising along and were comfortably placed above the relegation zone. Contrary to expectations,they faltered badly in the closing stages with the relegation axe falling on them at the end.

The relegation of APF FC, known for its consistent performance in domestic tournaments was a shocker. Foreign players' presence in the league was significant. With the exception of Nepal Army and Nepal Police, every team had foreign players on its roster. Not surprisingly, the majority of players were from the African continent- Cameroon,Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria,Lesotho,Togo, Male and Chad. Additionally, there were players from India and Uzbekistan also. I might have missed out a few names. Excuse me for that.

Foreign players dominated the scoring honors. MFC’s Nigerian striker topped the scoring chart with 23 goals. Likewise, playing for FC Khumaltar Messouke Oloumou (Cameroon) found the net 18 times, followed by Jawalakhel Youth Club’s Nikoto Masoabi(Lesotho) and Rafiq Aminu of Friends Club (Ghana) with 16 and 14 goals respectively . The only local player to have scored more than ten goals was Satdobato Youth Club’s striker Dipak Raj Thakuri. He accounted for 12 goals.

Church Boys United’s Ananta Tamang was absolutely the right choice for the most valuable player of the tournament Whether the presence of foreign players has helped local players improve their performance and raise the standard of the tournament is debatable. In my opinion,their contribution has been bare minimum. I say this because they lack the desired quality to make the competition competitive as much as we want.

All Nepal Football Association, A -Division clubs and stakeholders must join hands and work jointly to improve the quality of the league in every possible way. If the football association organizes the league only to fulfill its responsibility it becomes irrelevant and meaningless. Rather it should be held with the sole objective for bettering and improving both participants and competition.

By Sushil Thapa, Fairfax VA, USA