KATHMANDU, MARCH 31

Member Secretary of the National Sports Council Ramesh Kumar Silwal today said the idle and non-functional national sports associations would face stern action from the sports governing body.

"We have got more than 200 national sports associations but only around 50 are functioning properly," said Silwal addressing the launching ceremony of the NSJF Academy. "The sports associations cannot be operated from the pocket of certain people from now on.

They must bring plans and programmes, along with producing players and technical manpower," he said.

Silwal also said most of the associations did not have playing field and some were even without the athletes.

"The officials who have been at the helm of certain associations even do not know about the playing field of their sports and some do not have players to compete as well," said Silwal without naming the sports associations.

"I am bringing a policy which does not allow the national associations to stay idle from now on. Either they should work towards the development of their respective sports disciplines or leave the field," he added.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Sports Journalists Forum launched the NSJF Academy with three main objectives - training, research and mentorship. "These are the needs of sports journalists and we will organise various programmes through the NSJF Academy to enhance the quality of sports journalists," said NSJF President Durga Nath Subedi.

The NSJF has already joined hands with All Nepal Football Association, Nepal Volleyball Association, Mountain Sports Federation and Centre for Media Research for different programmes.

Subedi also urged the national sports association to help NSJF in its bid to make 2021 the training year.

"We are beginning it with training on volleyball under the 'Know Your Sport' campaign tomorrow," he added.

Minister for Youth and Sports Dawa Tamang hoped the NSJF Academy would be able to help sports journalists produce quality materials.

Minister Tamang and Secretary Kedar Neupane also assured the NSJF of supporting the programmes to be conducted by the Academy.

Nepal Olympic Committee President Jeevan Ram Shrestha, former NOC President Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan and ANFA President Karma Tsering Sherpa lauded NSJF's efforts towards conducting training for sports journalists and doing research works on Nepali sports.

Coordinator of NSJF Academy Niranjan Adhikari and NSJF General Secretary Prajwal Oli highlighted the importance of training for journalists. Adhikari said the Academy would conduct 12 training programmes in a year under the auspices of Mountain Sports Federation and organise training in seven provinces in association with ANFA. "Apart from training and research, we have also planned to prepare database of Nepali sports," he added.


A version of this article appears in the print on April 1, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.