Age disputes a recurring problem for ANFA
By Dinesh Thapa
(July 2003)

Despite all the ANFA politics, the main problem for Nepalese football is the age of our players. Not a single Nepalese booter is willing to reveal their actual age and ANFA is also closing both eyes in this matter. Because of age scandals, Nepalese football has had to pay a huge price and it is one of the main barriers for the development of football in Nepal. 

Palestine beat Nepal  3 – 1 in aggregate to advance to the second round of Pre-Olympic qualifying match. Nepal lost both legs to Palestine. The Olympic tournament if for the under 23 players. Surendra Tamang, Kishor Subba, Kailash Dongol, Shiva Chaudhari and Sundar Nepal were prohibited to play in the match just one hour before the match started. This was because of age limits that ANFA officials were oblivious to. Players were supposed to be under 23 by the start of the 2004 Olympics, but ANFA thought it was under 23 at the start of the match with Palestine. ANFA Officials said that they knew nothing about the rule. Is that a responsible answer from ANFA?! Even some people who have a little knowledge about football rules and regulations know that the players should be under 23 at the start of the 2004 Greece Olympics. 

The scene at the stadium were startling as ANFA looked to the stands for warm bodies to replace the disqualified players. Unfortunately, most of the quality replacements were unavailable as they were out of valley. One can clearly see Jibesh Pandey struggling against the Palestinian defenders but there were no substitute players for him. The players throughout the game were like a headless chickens and ANFA needs to be accountable for the fiasco. 

But this age dispute in the game against Palestine was not new to the Nepalese football scene. We can look back the history. In 2000, Kailash Dongol and Kishor Subba were dropped just before a game started because of age limitations, at the 32nd Asian U19 qualification matches in Bangladesh. If both Kishor Subba and Kailash Dongol were exactly 19 years old in 2000, they must only be 22 at the game against Palestine. 

If Kailash and Kishor couldn’t play in the Pre-Olympic qualifiers against Palestine, How did Narayan Manandhar Play? Narayan played at the 31st U 19 Asian qualifying games in Iraq in 1998 before Kishor and Kailash played. 

In 2000, Nepal played in the final round of the Asian U 16 championship in Vietnam. The Nepalese U 16 team was banned for 2 years and fined US$10,000 for using overaged players. Binod Prajapati, Nabin Neupane and some of the other players were presumably the guilty players. Binod is my childhood friend and I now that he was about 22 at that time when he was playing the final round of the Asian U 16 championship in Vietnam. But how did ANFA no know this?

Despite all these incidents ANFA have been silent and every time the dispute occurs it says that is was unaware about the matter. Take the example of Nabin Neupane. He was selected to play in the 3rd SAFF Championship in Bangladesh recently. His age was shown 17 years old. Nabin Nepane  was one of the player who was over age at final round of the Asian U 16 championship in Vietnam in 2000. On what basis did ANFA put his age at 17 when he was supposedly 16 years old 3 years ago?

While watching the Pre Olympic Qualifying games in Dasharath Stadium a journalist friend of mine told me that Narayan Manandhar may be 28 years old, but he is still playing in U 23 Olympic qualification matches. He even suggested me to put on my football gears as ANFA officials were looking for new players after 5 players were ruled out because they were overage.

I was a former football player and although I haven’t played in the national team at any level, I did play in regional, and national level tournaments including U16 tournaments and the Martyr's League. While I was playing the U16 tournament in Kathmandu, a coach asked me to produce the proof that I was under 16. I simply went to a school in my hometown and asked them to provide a certificate that says I am below 16. The school principle simply handed it over to me. At that time I was 19. Even now I could get a document saying I am 19.

ANFA should monitor such certificates carefully and select players only on the basis of birth registration certificates provided by the CDO's office of the players district. 

The main problem of the age dispute is due to the lack of youth level tournaments apart from the U 16 tournament. But the U 16 tournament is also not regular and their is fierce competition to get selected to that squad by any means possible.. ANFA should start organizing age level tournaments at different age levels such as U 12, U14, U16, U19 and U 23 on a yearly basis. Separate national teams should be created for separate age groups.

We can hope that ANFA has learnt a big lesson through the past age dispute fiascos. ANFA should use logic in this age matter. How can a player studying BBS for 3 years be only 17 years old? ANFA should improve their managerial skills and it should understand that the objective of ANFA is not to win tournaments with over age players, but to develop Nepali football in a fair and honest manner.

Dinesh Thapa is a coach for Kathmandu Club. He can be reached at dinesh@nepalsport.com
     

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