Lalitpur, August 12 :

All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) felicitated the Under-19 and Under-14 national teams for their acheivements, today.

The U-17 team, under coaches Raju Kaji Shakya and Diken Suwal, advanced for the final qualifying round of the ACC U-17 Championship to be held in Singapore from September 3.

The U-17 team is pitted against Korea (September 3), Japan (Sept 5) and hosts Singapore (Sept 7) in the qualifying matches. The team is scheduled to leave for Malaysia to play friendly matches before participating the tournament.

The first-round qualifying matches of Group F that also included Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan were held in Kathmandu in November 2005. Nepal qualified for the second round with a 2-1 win over Kyrgyzstan and 2-0 victory over Uzbekistan. Chetan scored three goal for Nepal, while the fourth came courtesy of a Uzbekistan player’s own goal.

The Under-14 team, under coach Kishor KC, had won the Subroto Mukherjee Cup Football Tournament held in New Delhi in October 2005.

ANFA president Ganesh Thapa gave away cash prizes to the players and coaches. The U-17 players and coaches received Rs 10,000 each while the U-14 players and coaches got Rs 5,000 each. Under-17 team coach Shakya and U-14 team coach KC said that such honours would help motivate players to perform better in future.

Speaking on the occasion, ANFA president Thapa said that the opportunity to represent country should be taken as the real honour. “Monetary benefit is secondary,” he said.

Captain of U-17 team Bikash Singh Chhetri and U-14 skipper Nirajan Mallla thanked the ANFA and its academy for providing support and facilities.

ANFA vice president and spokesperson Lalit Krishna Shrestha, general secretary Narendra Shrestha, other officials and national players were also present on the occasion.