Kathmandu, October 9:

The National Sports Council (NSC) today made an one-sided decision directing the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) to hold its re-election within three months.

The ANFA held its regular elections two years ago, but the NSC — which was reformed after the Jana Andolan II — quashed the elections of the 15 national associations including ANFA and directed them to get the new mandate alleging them of holding the elections during the Royal regime. “We had two choices, either to reform the current ANFA committee including the members of the agitating groups or to hold the elections. We decided to go for the elections by mid January 2008,” said Pradeep Nepal, minister for Education and Sports and the NSC chairperson.

The 61st board meeting also formed a five-member committee under NSC vice president Sita Ram Maskey to review the statute and investigate the financial irregularities in ANFA. The other members of the committee are Bhumishwor Dahal, Rajendra Bahadur Shrestha, Mahesh Guragain and Milan Rai. “We will move ahead after the committee submits its report including suggestions within 45 days,” said Nepal.

The NSC seemed the likely victors in the power tussle between the ANFA and the sports governing body regarding latter’s fresh elections after Minister Nepal said that the move would not hamper football. “Football have achieved nothing significant that we could be proud of. So there is no reason to fear of anybody,” said Nepal indicating towards the fact that the FIFA and AFC could ban Nepal if the current ANFA body is dissolved.

The board also decided to direct the ANFA to send request letters to FIFA and AFC through Nepal Olympic Committee. “We are confident that FIFA and AFC will understand our position. If they take any action, we will take all the responsibilities,” he said.

Asked about the ANFA’s stance of completing its four year term until 2009, Minister Nepal said ANFA president Ganesh Thapa was ready to hold the elections. “We have discussed the matter and Thapa has expressed his desire to hold the elections,” he said.

NSC member secretary Jeevan Ram Shrestha said the ANFA did not folllow the NSC instructions earlier. “Now if they don’t follow the fresh directives , we will not hesitate to dissolve the committee,” he said. “The board has decided to direct the 15 associations to hold their elections within three months. All the other associations will be given additional three months to hold their elections,” he said.

The other major decision taken by the board was to provide financial assistance to three players who got injured during training or camp. “We have decided to ask the government to provide Rs 100,000 each to athlete Bishnu Kafle, kabaddi player Saroj Pokhrel and footballer Deepak Poudel for their medical treatment.”