KATHMANDU, AUGUST 18

National football team acting head coach Pradip Humagain urged the stakeholders to support him and his team in their bid to eke out positive result against Bangladesh in next month's friendly match at the Dasharath Stadium.

The Nepali team is scheduled to face Bangladesh in an international friendly match and the All Nepal Football Association appointed Humagain as the acting head coach in the absence of controversial Abdullah Almutairi, who has been sent in a threemonth leave after the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers upon the recommendation of the probe committee.

The ANFA formed the probe committee after Almutairi ousted 10 players from the national team camp for allegedly disrupting team discipline.

The committee made a number of suggestions to the ANFA including keeping the 10 players out of the squad for the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers and finding replacement for Almutairi after the tournament.

Nepal took part in the Qualifiers without those 10 players and sent Almutairi for a threemonth leave after the tournament but the football governing body is yet to take final decision on Almutairi, who has a contract until 2023. In between, a new leadership came to power at the ANFA and the executive committee meeting handed the responsibility of taking proper decision on the case to General Secretary Kiran Rai.

Before taking any decision, Gen Secretary Rai sent an email to Almutairi seeking clarification on the issue. According to ANFA, Almutairi has responded to the letter and that the football governing body was studying his reply.

The new ANFA leadership has already decided to include the 10 players in the national team and preliminary squad announced by new coach Humagain includes all of them.

Humagain conducted first session on Thursday and a total of 17 players were present at training. 'Hopefully all the players will join the camp in a couple of days,' said Humagain in an interaction programme at ANFA Complex.

Humagain - who has already acquired the United States citizenship - thanked the ANFA for trusting him as the national team head coach for friendly match. The AFC A License holder coach, Humagain arrived to Kathmandu last night and he was quick enough to urge the stakeholders to support him and his team for match. 'I am grateful to ANFA for giving me the job but it's not only my responsibility.

I need support from all stakeholders as we will be playing for a win,' he said.

The former Three Star Club and Lalitpur City FC coach, Humagain refused to comment on the controversy between Almutairi and the players.

'I am not going to comment on the issue and I want to focus on my team for the friendly match. All 40 players in the squad are equal for me and I will not treat any one of them in a different way based on that incident,' he added.

ANFA Spokesperson Suresh Shah said Humagain was selected from a list of coaches for the friendly match. 'We needed a coach for the match in the absence of Almutairi and the ANFA executive committee picked Humagain from a long list of coaches,' said newly-nominated Spokesperson Shah. 'As far as Almutairi is concerned, our General Secretary Kiran Rai is expected to take proper decision at the earliest,' he added.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 19, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.