Lalitpur, May 21:

The Joint Struggle Committee (JSC) today called back the five officials who were sent to the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) executive committee after a four-point agreement between the two parties.

“We were deceived by ANFA president Ganesh Thapa. The Nepal Republican Sports Federation, which acted as the mediator, told us that the ANFA committee would be of 29-member, and we signed the agreement. Our inclusion in the committee would be illegal as per the ANFA bylaws and we have decided to withdraw our members from the committee,” said Lok Bahadur Shahi, member of the JSC, at a press meet.

The JSC had sent five officials to the ANFA committee — Sambhu Bastola (vice president), Krishna Bhakta Manandhar (joint secretary), and members Kumar Raut, Rabindra Joshi and Arjun Lama.

Apart from including the officials in the committee, the other three points agreed three days ago included the formation of the five-member committee to amend the ANFA bylaws, holding the ANFA elections within three months, and the withdrawal of their ultimatum to lockout ANFA office.

ANFA president Thapa, convenor of JSC Mathura Ram Shrestha and Jayandra Bahadur Chand, president of Nepal Republican Sports Federation, had signed the four-point agreement.

“The process of our inclusion is illegal, and we won’t go to the ANFA committee unless they (ANFA) make it legal,” said Bastola, former national footballer. “Ganesh Thapa (ANFA president) does not have the right to include any member in the executive committee. Only General Assembly has the right and that should be done by process,” he added.

Asked the way out, Shahi said: “The ad hoc committee can add members. So they need to give us in written that the current committee is ad hoc and they are including five officials in the committee.” The JSC also formed a seven-member football committee to prepare itself for the ANFA elections, which they claim would be held in three months.