Tashi Ghale today announced his candidacy for the post of All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) President in the upcoming elections.

Ghale was nominated as the candidate by the Laxmi Hyundai Manang Marshyangdi Club. Ghale, the founder and former president of the club, is an executive committee Member in the new body.

“The country is enjoying democracy and constitution has been drafted already but the ANFA is yet to change. It is running in the same way it used to function 30 years ago,” said Ghale at a press meet organised to introduce the new MMC committee. “While the Prime Minister needs one each member to propose and second his proposal for the candidacy, the ANFA president candidate needs a total of 10 persons,” he said.

“And the PM candidate can file the nominations three days prior to the elections, while it is 30 days in ANFA case. The ANFA office bearers are just trying to stop football lovers from entering the ANFA.” Ghale also accused the National Sports Council of following the report submitted by the probe committee formed by the sports governing body itself. “The committee has stated that ANFA is failure and it needs a total revamp for the overall development of the sport. But the NSC is not implementing the recommendations suggested by the committee,” he added. “The ANFA needs to move ahead in a new way and all the stakeholders need to understand it.”

He also asked the current office bearers of the ANFA to ease the process rather than making it complicated. “The ANFA officials should prepare a favourable environment for all the people who want to come to ANFA and serve the sport. The ANFA is under controversy for the last 30 years and it should be ended once and for all,” he added. The ANFA has set the election date of October 24 for the posts of president and vice-president. The president’s post is vacant since November last year after ANFA President Ganesh Thapa was handed a 10-year ban by the Ethics Committee of Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) for his involvement in corruption, while vice-president and the then acting president Lalit Krishna Shrestha passed away because of electrocution in June last year.

NSC Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista said the current ANFA office bearers needed to hold the elections to end all disputes. “There are few provisions of ANFA which contradict with NSC regulations and those issues need to be addressed before the elections as we want to everything to be resolved for smooth functioning of the ANFA in future,” Bista added. ANFA acting President Narendra Shrestha congratulated the new committee of the club and wished success. “MMC is a rich club in terms of history and I hope the new committee will be able to take the club to new heights in national and international arena,” said Shrestha. He also wished luck for Ghale in the forthcoming elections of the ANFA.

Meanwhile, former President of MMC Jimi Gurung welcomed the new committee office bearers. Mukhiya Kanchha Gurung is the president, while Mukhiya Gurung, Chhiring Funjo Gurung and Cholpa Gurung are the vice-presidents. Mukhiya Lama is the general secretary and Bijay Ghale the secretary. Sonam Gurung is the treasurer, while Pema Tashi Gurung and Chhiring Ghale are joint treasurers. Likewise, Tashi Ghale, Kapli Gurung, Pemba Gurung, Sonam P Gurung, Karma Gurung and Dhan Bahadur Gurung are the members in the new committee. Raju Shrestha, Nirakar Shrestha, Karma Ghale, Prabhat Gurung, Rajeev Gurung, Birat Jung Shahi and Neema Sherpa are the advisors of the committee.

The MMC also felicitated eight coaches — Chhiring Lopsang Gurung, Upendra Man Singh, Kumar Thapa, Nabin Neupane, Rajendra Tamang, Hari Khadka, Bal Gopal Maharjan and Rabindra Silakar — who acquired the A License recently. A total of 24 coaches had taken part in the maiden course organised by the ANFA. Likewise, MMC feted Olympian archer Jit Bahadur Muktan, the member of the MMC Archery Club, for his participation in the Rio Olympic Games.