Emergency meeting of football governing body fails to find solution
LALITPUR, JULY 30
The emergency meeting of the All Nepal Football Association today decided to request the Youth and Sports Ministry to conduct investigation into the matter involving senior vice-president Pankaj Nembang and national team head coach Abdullah Almutairi.
Almutairi had accused Nembang of creating problems to him for three weeks and announced his resignation through social media but he has not submitted the paper to the ANFA. After Nembang demanded probe into the matter, Almutairi - who had claimed of having evidences against the senior vice-president - also requested the ANFA to investigate into the matter.
The ANFA then called the emergency meeting but it failed to come up with a solution and decided to hand over the case to the ministry.
The Kuwaiti coach, who took over the national team helm in April, on Sunday took to Facebook to announce his resignation accusing Nembang for his decision to step down. "Dear Nepali Fans... I'm going to ANFA to resign because of the senior vice president [Pankaj Nembang]," he wrote on Facebook.
He has not conducted national team training since then after ANFA president Karma Tsering Sherpa asked him to take rest for the time being.
Almitairi was also involved in a controversy after he verbally abused two sports journalists at the ANFA Complex after one of them inquired the coach about smoking at a public place. The journalists has also asked the ANFA to conduct investigation and the coach's resignation fiasco is believed to be linked with the case.
Nembang, vice-presidents Bir Bahadur Khadka and Krishna Thapa, and member Dawa Lama left the hall after ANFA president Sherpa told the meeting that he was not able to take action against the coach. "We walked out after president Sherpa said he was not in position to take action against the coach,"
Khadka told reporters. "We all are here to save football and we will accept the decision of the meeting," he added.
Earlier, Almutairi - who was invited in the meeting to present his side - walked out in anger when the officials were being briefed about letters from Nembang and two journalists.
Meanwhile, the ANFA finalised the financial proposal to be submitted to South Asian Football Federation to host the SAFF Championship in October.
The meeting also thanked the government for allocating Rs 50 million - half of the proposed total budget - along with commitment letter for the tournament.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 31 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
