ANFA Academy needs reform
By Biplav Gautam
(December 2003)

Let’s say Japan’s under 20 and under 17 teams were playing the likes of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. What would the scores of those matches be? Would it be a massive disappointment if the Japanese teams could do no better than draw with half those sides? The answers are obvious – the score would be a lot of goals for Japan versus none for the South Asian sides, and yes it would be a massive disappointment if they could only manage a draw against half those sides.  

Well then, why isn’t it a massive disappointment when Nepal’s ANFA Academy teams can barely beat or even draw a match against the weakest sides on the continent, especially when supposedly no country on the sub-continent has a youth system like ours? 

The ANFA Academy players have been training together for nearly 6 years. They started from the age of 12 and there have been new batches every two years. They have full time coaches, for the most part adequate training gear, and technically they are far superior to our national team players – some of whom can’t even juggle a football. These kids have been made to eat, drink and sleep football, yet they are miles behind their counterparts across Asia. What is the problem? 

The answer is simple – Nepal’s youth football system is flawed!  

Mistake #1 – The ANFA Academy dashes the dreams of young footballers. There are so many young boys who give-up on football because they feel that there is no future for them since they did not qualify for the Academy. ANFA has hyped the Academy to a point where they have too much invested in the program to select players outside the academy structure. Many ANFA officials refuse to believe that there can be players out there that are just as good as the Academy players. ANFA has thrown in one or two outsiders on the youth national teams, but those are by far the exceptions to the rule and usually those players are overaged anyway.

Mistake #2 – You cannot identify future national team players at the age of 10 or 12! FIFA released a study showing that only 7% of the players playing in the 1998 World Cup actually played for the youth national teams of their nation. What does that prove? Basically, footballers mature differently and at different points in their lives. You certainly can’t pin point future national team players at the age of 10.  

Mistake #3 – There is a too much of a comfort zone, lack of diversity and no selection process. The Academy boys know each other well and know exactly what their standing on the team is. There is very little competition or diversity in training. They play with the same exact players, against the same exact opposition, in the same exact system, with the same exact coaches every day. Even in the Martyr’s League they were sent in two large groups to only two different clubs. When a youth tournament comes around the ANFA Academy teams are automatically sent. What happens when these players are on their own? They will be completely lost. Contrast this to kids in Japan who are constantly competing to make it to different youth teams, with and against players they hardly know, in different football systems, with different coaches, where selection is never guaranteed. 

Mistake #4 – Clubs, schools, and youth teams are ostracized. With all money for youth development going to the ANFA Academy, school football has virtually died, clubs take no initiative to start their own youth teams, and no one dares to start a youth academy as it  is perceived that by doing so you are challenging the ANFA Academy and even worse ANFA officials. Ultimately the future of Nepali football is put into the hands of a few dozen 12 year old kids that qualify for the ANFA Academy, some of who are chosen because of petty politics. 

Mistake #5 – Playing against Nepali clubs in a familiar environment. The Academy boys gain little by playing Nepali clubs. First of all there is a lot of familiarity for the Academy players as they watch the Nepali teams and players regularly so they are not intimidated by them or the surroundings, and actually they are quit confident when facing them. But then they play them so much that they start playing to the level of their competition and their level of play starts to deteriorate. Playing Nepali club sides a dozen times at Dasarath Rangasala does not prepare them to play national youth teams in a foreign country and in completely different conditions. 

So we’ve identified SOME of the problems. What are the solutions? Here is a novel concept – why not look at what the best footballing nations do and adopt them! It is safe to say a lot of the solutions involve getting club teams to start their own football academies and implementing a transfer system where by teams can sell their top talent to fund their academies.