Kathmandu, September 19

Four district Football Associations and Friends Club today criticised the All Nepal Football Association leadership of being biased in selecting representatives for the upcoming elections.

Representatives of the Parsa, Jhapa, Sarlahi and Sindhupalchowk district FAs and Friends Club accused the ANFA leadership of providing the list to the election committee without taking the approval of the executive committee.

“The list of representatives published by the election committee is different to that of recommended by the district FAs and clubs,” said ANFA vice-president Kishor Rai at a press meet. “There are problems in four district FAs and Friends Club,” he added. “We will file our petition in the election committee and appeal committee tomorrow. We are hopeful that these two committees will investigate the matter fairly. If they do not listen to us, we will seek remedies from other ways,” added Rai, one of the three vice-presidents reinstated by the ANFA following the instructions of the Asian Football Confederation along with Member Pankaj Nembang.

Nembang said the ANFA leadership manipulated the list of the representatives. “The district FAs and Friends Club have sent a list of three representatives each for the elections in their letter head but the election committee has published the names of other persons. This is ridiculous as they have accepted the list sent by unknown person in a white paper,” he said. “The case of Jhapa FA is more serious. We had decided not to send any representative after the meeting failed to finalise the names unanimously. But the list published by the election committee has three representatives from Jhapa FA,” he said.

Friends Club President Ratna Shumsher Rana was surprised to see the names of three representatives who were not in the executive committee. “We decided to send three representatives including me from the meeting and our Treasurer Shekhar Karki sent the named to ANFA along with the minute of the meeting. But the list of election committee includes the persons — Mukunda Bista, Binod Dhoj Khadka and Satyaman Lama — who are not in our executive committee,” he said.

Sarlahi FA vice-president Tulasi Raj Ghimire said he was shocked to know the names of the representatives from his committee. “We had selected three representatives unanimously and I am stunned why the decision was manipulated. I came to know that my General Secretary Arjun Kumar Chaudhary sent different names to the ANFA,” he said.

Likewise, Parsa FA President Manoj Bhattarai said a couple of officials deceived others and took the sign. “They went to the doors of the executive committee officials and asked them to sign in the minute book to change the names of the representatives decided earlier,” he said. “Now the General Secretary of ANFA (Dhirendra Pradhan) has been bargaining with me to give the voting right to my first vice-president Ghana Shyam Shrestha,” said Bhattarai.

Sindhupalchowk FA Vice-president Padam Bahadur Magar accused his President Bir Bahadur Khadka of submitting the name without taking the approval of the executive committee. “After he submitted the four names without deciding from the meeting, we also gave three names along with the copy of minute having the signatures of the seven executive committee officials,” he said.

The AGM of the ANFA is scheduled for October 24. The post of president is vacant since November last year after FIFA Ethics Committee handed a 10-year ban on President Ganesh Thapa for his involvement in corruption, while the vice-president’s post is vacant after the then acting president Lalit Krishna Shrestha passed away due to electrocution in June 2015.