Lalitpur, May 26

All Nepal Football Association is all set to organise the ANFA Women’s League Championship in Syangja and Palpa from May 30 to June 9.

A total of 28 district football teams will take part in the tournament which will be played under league-cum-knock out format, informed ANFA Chief Executive Officer Indra Man Tuladhar at a press meet today. The participating teams have been divided into eight groups with Syangja and Jhapa hosting matches of four groups each.

Syangja, Panchathar, Rautahat and Dhankuta are in Group A, while Group B comprises of Banke, Sunari and Sarlahi. Group C includes Morang, Bara, Bardiya and Dhanusa, while Nawalparasi, Ilam and Nuwakot are pitted in Group D for the matches to be held in Syangja.

Similarly, Kathmandu, Bhojpur, Kanchanpur and Makwanpur are in Group A, while Jhapa, Dang and Mahottari are pitted in Group B. Taplejung, Sindhupalchowk, Sindhuli and Saptari are in Group C, while Group D is made up of Kailali, Udaypur and Chitwan for the matches to be hosted by Palpa.

After the league rounds, top teams will enter the quarter-finals. Both Syangja and Palpa will organise two each quarter-finals as well as one apiece semi-finals. The final will be played in Palpa.

The winners and runners-up will earn Rs 300,000 and Rs 150,000 respectively. Similarly, the best goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, forward and coach will take home Rs 15,000 apiece. The estimated budget for the tournament is Rs 6.3 million. ANFA President Narendra Shrestha said that the tournament would be organised from the budget allotted by the AFC and FIFA for women’s development programmes. “The participating teams can include two each players from national squad and departmental teams provided they belong to their districts,” ANFA CEO Tuladhar said. “The inclusion of departmental sides mean that other teams face heavy defeats. So we want to make the district teams strong first and then organise other tournaments where departmental teams will also feature.”

Tuladhar informed that the best 30 players of the tournament will get chances to play for different three departmental teams. “We have reached an agreement to keep the players with the departmental teams for a couple of months. ANFA will provide accommodation as well as Rs 5,000 each per month to the selected players,” said Tuladhar.

According to the ANFA, the three departmental sides will form two teams for the Women’s President Cup League. The event will be played under home and away format and the best players of the tournament will get the opportunity of the national team’s training camp. After that, ANFA will hold the Women’s National Football League featuring five regional teams and three departmental sides.

“Since we are hosting the SAFF Women’s Championship next year, we want to organise football events throughout the year so that we could find best players for the national team,” added Tuladhar.