KATHMANDU, JUNE 16

Nepal national football team skipper Nawayug Shrestha said the team missed the services of senior players who were told to leave the camp by head coach Abdullah Almutairi.

The Tribhuvan Army Club striker, Shrestha clarified it was coach Almutairi who asked the 10 senior players to leave the camp. 'I was also there at the hotel when coach Almutairi asked the senior players to leave the camp,' said Shrestha, upon the team's arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport from Kuwait, today. 'The 10 senior players did not leave the hotel without any reason but they were forced to quit the camp. I don't think the coach was right when he asked his players to leave the team hotel,' he added.

After the incident, Almutairi called 17 new players in the camp after excluding 10 senior players along with skipper Kiran Kumar Limbu, who lost his place for a single Facebook status in support of his team members. Almutairi then handed the captaincy to Shrestha for the final round qualifying tournament of the AFC Asian Cup.

Nepal lost all three matches - 2-0 against Jordan, 4-1 against Kuwait and 7-0 against Indonesia. Darshan Gurung scored the lone goal for Nepal and the goal against Kuwait came 40 years after YB Ghale netted the first international goal against the same opponents. 'There was no rift in the team after we left the country. It was awkward in the beginning after junior players were called up in the camp. They were also hesitant in the early stages of training but we gelled up well with each other,' said Shrestha. 'But we missed the senior players in the tournament.'

'The overall performance of the team was okay but we could not qualify. The absence of senior players obviously affected the results. We were in tough group but it might have been a different story had we had all the players in the team,' added the skipper. 'But I don't think we fared badly in Kuwait. Playing 2-0 against Jordan was not a bad performance and 4-1 result against Kuwait was also okay. We conceded seven goals against Indonesia as coach Almutairi tried an experimental team with new players,' he said.

The coach-players saga began when Rohit Chand demanded the fulfillment of basic needs at the camp. The team management wanted to keep the team at ANFA hostel, while the players were in no mood to compromise on facilities. Coach Almutairi bypassed the team management and took over the role by himself in deciding the accommodation and other facilities for the players. As a leader in the absence of skipper Kiran Kumar Limbu, who was playing professional football in Maldives, vice-captain Chand raised the issue and Almutairi tried to suppress the voice of the players. Almutairi asked Chand to leave the camp and nine others -Sujal Shrestha, Ananta Tamang, Bimal Gharti Magar, Anjan Bista, Bishal Shrestha, Bishal Rai, Dinesh Rajbanshi, Tej Tamang and Suman Lama - were also asked to follow him for showing solidarity. Skipper and goalkeeper Limbu was never considered for the team.

ANFA formed a three-member committee to find facts and the committee has already asked the football governing body to find the replacement for Abdullah after the Asian Cup qualifiers. The ANFA, which backed coach's decision to keep 11 players out of the team is yet to make formal decision regarding the coach. Abdullah did not return to Nepal with the team today and ANFA sources confirmed the coach stayed at his country, Kuwait for a couple of months on medical leave.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 17, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.