Kathmandu, May 8

Footballers Mission Together is organising a grand programme to honour former national team footballers here on May 27.

The FMT was established by a group of former international footballers to collect the records of the national team members who have represented the country in international competitions, informed FMT President Bishnu Gopal Shrestha at a press meet today.

“We are in the process of collecting the records of football players who have represented the country in international tournaments since 1963. We have already lost many footballers and we want to at least keep the records so that the coming generations know about us,” said Shrestha, who was the member of the national team from 1969-75. “And we want to give the message to the society that we had played for the country.”

Nepal’s first international tournament was in 1963 when the national team took part in the Aga Khan Gold Cup held in Bangladesh. Since then more than 300 footballers have represented the nation.

“We spent our prime time in football to make the country proud and the nation has invested on us. This is the time to give something back to the country. We are trying to unite and we can do something concrete as a team and we can also help each other,” he added.

Apart from the felicitation ceremony, the FMT is also publishing the journal compiling the facts and figures on Nepal’s international participation. The FMT has formed various committees under former players Komal Pandey, Deepak Harsha Bajracharya, Ashok Bajracharya, Ashok Ratna Bajracharya, Bigyan Raj Sharma, Dhirendra Pradhan, Amar Singh Shah, Rupal SJB Rana, Narendra Man Singh Shrestha, Babu Ram Pun, Prakash Gurung and Shyam Chitrakar.