Is Nepal better off not participating in the World Cup Qualifiers?
By Biplav Gautam
(2001)

With only a few weeks to go until the Asian group 6 FIFA World Cup qualifiers Nepal’s national team remains in tatters.

Club football has come to a stand still, the national team coach has resigned, the players can not agree on who to train with and of course the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) division continues.

Although the two ANFA factions have now decided to send a single national team for the qualifiers it can still be said that Nepali football has hit rock bottom. Where we go from here is anyone’s guess. The prevailing thought is that first and foremost the ANFA feud needs to be resolved.

On the heels of the World Cup qualifiers - scheduled for Kazakhstan and a still to be determined site in the Middle East - a question on whether Nepal should participate in the World Cup qualifiers now arises.

A large part of the answer to the question rests with FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). How will they react if Nepal withdraws? Will they understand the full extent of the chaos within Nepal’s football sector and be lenient, or will they take harsh action against us, as they have with other nations who have withdrawn from the World Cup, by fining and banning Nepal?

Myanmar was fined $25,000 and banned from the 2006 World Cup as a result of their withdrawal.

If Nepal does not participate, Nepal also risks losing whatever reputation it has left by withdrawing from the world’s most popular sporting event.

On the other hand, if Nepal chooses to participate, a large budget will have to be allocated for the travel and lodging of the national team, something that all parties should have thought of before Nepal forfeited its right to host the matches.

Perhaps they should have also thought of the economic and tourist benefits of hosting the World Cup qualifiers too, but time and time again the officials in Nepal’s sporting sector have shown the uncanny ability to not think.

With the foregone reality that team preparations for the qualifiers will be inadequate, there is also a very good chance that Nepal might get a massive drubbing by the likes of Kazakhstan and Iraq who will be eager to run-up the score on minnows such as us, to gain a massive goal difference.

Do we want headlines going around the world that read “Nepal suffer 15 goal defeat”? Furthermore, does FIFA and the AFC want such headlines ruining their reputations. Also are FIFA or we, depending on whose money will actually be spent, prepared to splurge millions of Rupees on travel costs to try to attain those headlines?

Perhaps we should ask Bhutan who had the distinction of appearing on CNN’s World Sport “Play of the Day” after their record breaking 20 - nil loss to Kuwait at the Asian Cup qualifiers.

We should have never put ourselves in a position where we needed to ponder these scenarios in the first place, but what is done is done.

Nepal now has a difficult question to answer and it must be answered quickly. Whatever the answer, a heavy price has already been paid and undoubtedly there will be more to be paid soon.