Kathmandu, October 13

Former FIFA Assistant Referee Kiran Giri today blamed the All Nepal Football Association of humiliating him after he was forced to return from Thailand without participating in the referee instructor course.

Giri was invited by world football governing body, FIFA to attend the course from October 8-15 in Bangkok but he was not allowed to take part in the programme after ANFA requested the FIFA to remove him from the list of participants.

“This is the biggest humiliation in my 32-year referee career in football,” said Giri at a press meet. “I came to know about my exclusion from the list only after I reached Bangkok airport on October 8,” he said. Showing the email sent to him by Thailand’s head of referee department Kamnueng Pannipar, Giri said: “The organisers had sent me the confirmation the previous day and asked me to contact the Futuro III desk at the airport for smooth transfer to the hotel in Bangkok.”

Asked about the confirmation from ANFA regarding his participation, Giri said he had informed the officials and that he okayed the FIFA only after receiving consent from ANFA Spokesperson Kiran Rai. “The FIFA had sent the letter to ANFA on September 13 with the list of participants. As the ANFA did not respond to the mail, FIFA wrote to me asking about my interest to take part in the course. I asked ANFA Spokesperson Rai and he talked with president Karma Tsering Sherpa and General Secretary Indra Man Tuladhar before giving approval to me,” said Rai.

“Even ANFA President Sherpa and Sikshit Parajuli (financial committee coordinator) called me when I was about to take the flight and wished me luck for the course,” he said. “But I was shocked when I was told that the ANFA wrote to FIFA to stop me from taking part from the course. I enquired about the decision and Mohammad Rodzali Yacob (Head of Operations, Referee Department at Asian Football Confederation) told me that Nabin Pandey (ANFA Advisor and International Relations coordinator) had sent the letter and personally called the FIFA to stop me,” he added.

FIFA had invited three referee instructors — Giri, Surendra Shikhrakar and Kalpana Sharma — to attend the course but ANFA sent Laba Khatri and Sailesh Joshi to Bangkok. “I don’t want to comment about others but as far as I know Surendra Shikhrakar did not go to Bangkok and Kalpana Sharma was stopped at the Tribhuvan International Airport,” said Giri. “I met Laba Khatri and Sailesh Joshi in the plane,” he added.

ANFA President Karma Tsering Sherpa said the accusations were baseless and that a committee had been formed under vice-president Upendra Man Singh. “We have formed an investigation committee to probe into this matter after we received a letter from National Sports Council to clarify about Giri’s accusations,” said Sherpa.