ANFA sacks Honorary President Tashi Ghale

Kathmandu, January 17

The executive committee meeting of All Nepal Football Association today decided to sack its Honorary President Tashi Ghale with immediate effect.

“The ANFA has decided to thank Honorary President Tashi Ghale for his advice and support in the past and take back the post from him from today,” said the ANFA in a release without elaborating. Going out of the list of 11 agendas set before the meeting, the ANFA sacked Ghale, who was not present in the meeting.

The meeting appointed Swedish coach Johan Kalin as the head coach of national team and age-group sides. According to ANFA, Kalin will take charge of the national team March. Among other decisions, the ANFA labelled the accusations by four district Football Associations as baseless and absurd, and referred the case to disciplinary committee for necessary action.

The meeting formed a 501-member main organising committee under ANFA President Karma Tsering Sherpa and 205-member preparation committee under its Vice-president Pankaj Nembang for Women’s SAFF Championship slated for March in Biratnagar. The meeting also gave authority to Sherpa and Nembang to form sub-committees for the grand success of the tournament.

The ANFA decided to felicitate the women’s national team members with Rs 50,000 for their historic achievement of entering the second round of Olympic Qualifiers, and the women’s U-19 team with Rs 25,000 apiece for advancing to the second round of the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship. The meeting also decided to give Rs 10,000 bonus each to the 30-member women’s national team which is preparing for the Women’s SAFF Championship.

Also, the meeting decided to form a committee under ANFA Member Bijay Ghale to study about the division and management of the knock out tournaments held outside the valley, while the ANFA formed a committee under its Vice-president Bir Bahadur Khadka to prepare the annual calendar. ANFA Member Ratna Kumar Shrestha got the responsibility of preparing a policy to grant financial assistance to the stakeholders, while the meeting decided to buy insurance policy to all the players, executive committee members and staff from next year. The meeting also decided to organise the 18th ANFA Congress in Biratnagar on March 23.

The ANFA also approved the Contract of Agreed Objectives (CAO) under FIFA Forward Programme for the 2016-18 and 2019-22 cycles. The meeting formed a three-member committee of Kiran Rai, Bijay Ghale and Sanjeev Mishra to prepare the regulations to organise different leagues — District, Province, Franchise, ANFA President, and National — and submit it in the next executive committee meeting.

The meeting also approved the nomination of Bigyan Raj Sharma in the AFC Tournament Committee and Rajeev Paudel in the AFC Marketing Committee. The ANFA decided to give Rs 500,000 to former national team skipper Rakesh Shrestha, who is yet to receive an apartment announced by the football governing body as the Player of the Year award.