Kathmandu, January 2:

The 62nd board meeting of the National Sports Council (NSC) directed associations to hold their elections at the earliest possible date.

The NSC member secretary Jeevan Ram Shrestha said today that all the associations will have to follow the directives. The meeting was chaired by Minister for Education and Sports Pradeep Nepal.

The board has directed All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) to hold its elections by April 28. "Election of the 15 associations was the main agenda of the meeting," said member secretary Shrestha. The 61st board meeting on October 9 had directed 15 associations — the elections of which was termed illegal by the NSC — to hold their elections by mid-January and the rest of the other associations by mid-April.

The October 9 meeting had also warned associations to face dissolution in case of defying the directives. Among the 15 associations, only Basketball and Archery have so far held their elections. Athletics, Badminton, Football, Shooting, Judo, Soft Tennis, Squash, Mountain Bike, Chess and Boxing among others have yet to hold their elections.

The meeting today also reached a conclusion that ANFA did not cooperate the inquiry committee headed by NSC vice-president Sitaram Maskey. The Inquiry committee was formed on October 12 to investigate the so-called irregularities committed by ANFA and its recent conflict with the clubs. The board came up with the conclusions after Maskey-headed committee submitted its report to minister Nepal.

The committee also suggested forming an impartial ANFA committee, the member of which would in eligible to go for elections.

The meeting also came to a conclusion that it was carelessness of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) that led to disqualification of Nepal from the ACC U-15 Elite Cup held recently in Kathmandu. ACC had disqualified hosts Nepal and six other nations from the tournament for fielding more than two over-aged players in December. The board authorised member secretary Shrestha to probe into the case and take action against the culprits.