More equals less for Nepal
By Dinesh Thapa
(April 2004)

Well, 2060 BS has been an outstanding year in terms of the quantity of football tournaments held in Nepal. It was certainly the busiest year in Nepalese football history. Nepalese football officials, players and the sports press were busy moving form one place to another to witness the plethora of football tournaments and competitions. 

Major Football Tournaments / Competitions held in Year 2060 BS 

• ANFA San Miguel “A” Division league
• ANFA San Miguel “B” Division league
• ANFA San Miguel “C” Division league
• ANFA San Miguel “C” Division qualifying Tournaments (formerly “D” Division)
• Mahendra Gold Cup
• Buddha Subba Gold Cup
• AHA Gold Cup
• Khukuri Cup
• ANFA Mayos Inter school tournament
• Inter Municipality Cup
• Inter District Development Committee (DDC) Cup
• Women’s Invitational Cup
• AFC U14 football festival

Above are some of the major football tournaments / competitions held in Nepal during 2060 BS. And they are only major and there are lots of uncountable football tournaments organized by local clubs in various parts of the country. So does that mean…..Nepalese football heading the right way…? My opinion……off course yes!!! As there are more and more tournaments held in the country we could produce good players and as the players get busy playing all the year round, they will be more matured and experienced. 

Nepal’s Participation in International Tournaments 

• AFC U 17 qualifying round (India)
• AFC U 20 qualifying round (Bangladesh)
• SAF Championship (Pakistan)

Apart from the AFC 20 qualifying round in Bangladesh, Nepal’s result was poor in other tournaments. Nepal crashed out of the first round SAF and Nepal even cannot win Bhutan. So does that mean Bhutan have improved their level of play???? No will be my answer. As Before the SAF, a village team from Jhapa traveled to Bhutan to play in the tournament. The village team beat the Bhutan’s club which contained some national player 3 – 1 in the final to lift the trophy. But Nepal’s Olympic team cannot beat Bhutan in the SAF games. And in India, the U 17 boys played some good football but they were unlucky not to qualify for the second round. 

So why aren’t we getting quality 

Nepalese football is finally getting quantity, but why has that not turned into quality? Does the quantity translate to the development of football in Nepal? From where I stand as a freelance sports journo, the answer is be a BIG FAT NO! 

I have pointed out SOME of the factors that are to be blamed not to produce quality.  

1. Poor Management: I do not want to criticize ANFA. ANFA is doing great job to make football so busy in year 2060. But this is truth that due to the lack of Management capability in the ANFA is hampering the quality of football. Take a example: The next A division league is to be start from April 17, 2004 but ANFA still are not sure that the league will start on time or not. Then how can be clubs sure about the league, how can they prepare. ANFA have come out with the calendar for the next year, but the calendar is only limited with in the ANFA officials. They should distribute the calendar to the press, clubs of all divisions and even make it public so that the fans can choose to see the tournaments. They should give the calendars to the Clubs of all divisions and instruct and make them sure that the certain tournament / league will start on the mentioned date. These are some of the symptoms of poor management. However no offence to ANFA as they are doing the great job by increasing the no of tournaments.

2. Quality Coach: This is another factor that is the main obstruction towards the quality of Nepalese football. In my opinion Nepalese coaches currently in Nepal are very good only for the Physical training. They lack the technical know how of the beautiful game. I visited to some of the site of the some of the top division clubs and Nepalese National training camp but the coaching system and technique remains the same. They warm up players and give players tough physical training and that’s it. The coaches should teach the players the technique and playing strategy of the game. Apart from one exception Mr. Sujan KC Coach of Tribhuwan Army Club, other coaches are old traditional coach. I recommend Mr. Sujan KC as being the best coach available in Nepal. I saw him coaching Army and WOW, it seems like He is the one who can produce quality. Coach should motivate the players to play well and we know that Motivation is a tough job. So ANFA should conduct the quality coaching lessons to produce quality coach and to sharpen the ability of the coaches.

3. Centralized Tournaments: Lets see some of the major tournaments of the country. They all are in Kathmandu. So ANFA should organize the tournaments in school level and district Level, so that the potential players from all over the country could show their talent. ANFA have done well with Khukuri cup and DDC Cup this year. So thumbs up for ANFA. The reason I say to take tournament to the district level is that most of the good players currently playing in Nepal are from different districts. So why not hunt the raw talent.

4. Age / school level tournaments: As we know that today’s children are tomorrow’s future talents. So tournaments should be organized in the school level with different age groups such as U10, U12, U14 and U 16. Competitions should also be organized in district levels in different age groups such as U 14, U16, and U19. So we can build the platform and find out the raw talent to blossom.

Above are ONLY SOME of the factors which can be overcome to produce more quality in Nepalese football. Other factors are such as building infrastructure, inviting the teams from different regions / districts to play the ANFA leagues, conducting the management course / classes to the ANFA management committee, privatize the clubs and many more. I think that privatizing the clubs can also be the main factor to produce quality to the Nepalese football.

Dinesh Thapa is freelancer who currently is Co-ordinator / Chief Reporter of NepalSport.com. He can be reached at Football_nepal@yahoo.com

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