Nepal prepare to play Qualifiers

The team has been selected, are under training and all are happy that Nepalese team, at least, will participate in the World Cup qualifiers in Kazhakstan and Iraq. If going by the Nepal’s top sports official’s latest comment, there is, however, an air of uncertainty whether the Nepalese team will travel to their destinations.

National Sports Council Member-Secretary Binod Shankar Palikhe recently dropped a bombshell saying that he is still not certain whether the Nepalese soccer team will take part in the qualifiers.

There is no doubt that if the Nepalese squad does not participate in the qualifiers it will be a setback for the football lovers and players who will miss the opportunity to take part in the mega events. People from both ANFAs feel that Nepal must take part in the qualifiers.

The news of Nepalese participation has also brought an air of gloom in the government owned ANFA, though its President Geeta Rana is very much in favour of the team’s participation in the qualifiers.

The office bearers of government appointed ANFA may be thinking the opportunity for Nepalese team’s participation in qualifiers will prove a blessing in disguise for Ganesh Thapa and Co., who, after being dismissed by NSC and Sports Ministry, has been enjoying the AFC and FIFA support. The decision to send the team will certainly consolidate Thapa’s position in the eyes of these international football organisations.

It is known by all now that Thapa has been blamed for shifting the venue of the Group-6 qualifiers. Earlier, Nepal was to host the Group-6 qualifying matches and the national soccer team had been scheduled to play with Iraq, Kazhakstan and Macau.

But citing unavailability of playing ground and security problems as the main reasons, the estranged Thapa urged AFC to shift the venues which the Asian Football governing body did.

Now the question is- why Thapa, after urging AFC to shift the venue out of jealousy against the government owned football association and NSC, has agreed to accept the leadership of NSC in sending the Nepalese team for the qualifiers? There are many reasons for this. One of them is—FIFA may impose ban on ANFA, if its team did not participate in the qualifiers, second the FIFA recognized ANFA has to pay a large sum in penalty if its team fails to turn-up at the FIFA regulated matches.

Because of these reasons Thapa seems to have accepted NSC leadership. And surely it will do a lot of good to him. The participation can convince FIFA and AFC to accept him as the leader of the legally acceptable Nepalese football governing body.

While Thapa derives many advantages from the Nepalese team’s participation, the government owned ANFA and NSC will lose some of the mileage they wanted. First, it will be a setback for Rana and her allies to convince FIFA/AFC that she heads the real Nepalese football governing body. Second, the defeat of Nepalese team will be put on their head because the Nepalese team which was selected hastily is certain to lose with a big margin against rivals like Iraq and Kazhakstan. They will certain to bear the brunt of criticism for Nepal’s defeat.

Meanwhile, the Nepalese team, which was selected after much hassles won’t be expected to bring laurels. The reason for this being the divided mentality of both our sports officials and players, who are surely under-trained and thus not fully-prepared for the mega events.

In such difficult situation, what many football watchers of the country have believed is the Nepalese team should not have taken part in the qualifiers, if the government owned ANFA has to teach a lesson to rivals: that in a sovereign country like Nepal, the decisions made by government must count. Moreover, if Geeta Rana led ANFA wants to start afresh, it should not have feared FIFA/AFC strictures or even bans.

For example, the football crazy African nation, Cameroon is under FIFA ban but have not bowed to FIFA to accept its orders. And also there are governments like in Greece and Tanzania that do not show an iota of fear of FIFA that tried to force these governments to continue with the football bodies that the world soccer governing body supported. These governments have not so far obeyed FIFA.

FIFA/AFC must not interfere against the policies and decisions made by a government of a sovereign country. They should show some semblance of respect for such decisions. They must not threaten to ban associations like ANFA to impose ban and force it to accept their diktat. Because of their stubborn stances, matters sometimes worsen rather than being resolved.

Other Story

• Karate, kickboxing meet from Baisakh 10