Kathmandu, September 1:

The All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) Congress elected a 17-member executive committee under the presidentship of Ganesh Thapa for the next four years. The unanimously elected body has just one new face — Gobardhan Singh Samjhana of Banke. Vice president Narendra Shrestha got the responsibilities of general secretary, while Kumar Jung Thapa, who was the acting general secretary in the past committee, has been upgraded to vice president.

Spokesperson Lalit Krishna Shrestha was also promoted to the vice president, while Mahesh Bista remained as the senior vice president, whereas Karma Tshering Sherpa and Kishor Rai will continue as the vice presidents. Birat Jung Shahi has been retained in the post of treasurer. “The congress has decided to include two new programmes and we will stick with our announced programmes of our association,” said Ganesh Thapa, who has been the ANFA president since last 11 years. The added two programmes are district-level league tournaments in all the 38 districts, and the Under-16 National Tournament. Other elected members are Basanta Aryal, Ganesh Bhattarai, Ganesh Chand, Mani Kunwar, Raju Shahi, Suresh Ligal, Deepak Khati and Dhirendra Pradhan. Raju Shahi was the nominated member of ANFA in the past committee.

The executive committee meeting held hours after the election nominated a vice president and six members and as per the ANFA bylaws president Thapa nominated five members, to complete the 29-member committee. The meeting nominated Mani Shah as the vice president, while vice president Lalit Krishna Shrestha was retained as the spokesperson. Other nominated members are Indra Man Tuladhar, Pankaj Nemwang, Sunil Rana, Rabindra Shrestha, Rajendra Man Singh, Rabindra Man Shrestha, Ravi KC, Madhav Thapa, Binod Bista, Bigyan Sharma and Chhimi Gurung. The congress also approved the annual budget of Rs 50.2 million presented by treasurer Shahi. The ANFA has planned to cover more than 50 per cent of the estimated budget through grants from FIFA and AFC.

The ANFA has allocated Rs 2.3 million for the infrastructure maintenance, while it has allotted Rs 5 million for international participations of U-14, U-16, U-19, U-23 and national teams.

The budget allocated for youth development projects is Rs 1.2 million, while women’s football development carries a sum of Rs 0.3 million. The most expensive tournament is the Martyrs’ Memorial ‘A’ Division League, which carries a purse of RS 9.5 million out of total tournament-budget of Rs 21.3 million.

Earlier, Kishor Bahadur Singh, member secretary of National Sports Council, inaugurated the congress chaired by ANFA president Thapa. Representatives from FIFA and AFC — Patrick Blatter, general secretary of International Centre for Sports Studies at FIFA; B Sanjeevan, head of National Associations/Legal Service Department at AFC; and Lim Kia Tong, AFC Legal Committee member — were also present on the occasion.