FIFA Goal Project Launch In February

By Our Correspondent

The FIFA Goal Project will be launched in Nepal in February next year. But the project can be approved only if ANFA shows the same kind of commitment it had shown earlier, hinted Paul Mani Samuel, Development Officer of FIFA Goal Project in Asia, who was in the capital last week.

ANFA has been involved in an imbroglio after the government appointed a school principal, Mrs. Geeta Rana, as president of ANFA’s ad-hoc executive committee about a month back. Subsequently, Ganesh Thapa, who has been leading ANFA for the last five years, held elections to the ANFA body and declared himself president, an outcome Nepal Sports Council is unwilling to accept.

Samuel, however, said that FIFA recognized ANFA's newly elected executive committee headed by Thapa. FIFA has given proposals to amend ANFA’s present constitution.

Samuel said that both Thapa’s ANFA and the one recognised by the National Sports Council (NSC) should come under one wing. "The development of soccer is likely to be derailed if there exists two soccer governing bodies in the nation,’’ he said.

FIFA had chosen Nepal for its goal project, largely impressed by the then Thapa-led ANFA works. The then ANFA body had built an administrative building and its own grounds besides setting up a soccer academy at Satdobato without any assistance from FIFA.

He also said that during his short visit to Nepal he met ANFA officials and also held discussions with them over the priority for the development of soccer in the nation. He had inspected the current football facilities in some of the districts, and met some regional ANFA officials during his visits to the regional centers.

He will send his recommendations to FIFA as soon as possible so that the proposed Goal Project in Nepal can be approved. Sri Lanka is the other nation that has been chosen for the FIFA Goal Project in South Asia.

But in Asia, Jordan and the Palestinian state are the other two nations to be awarded the FIFA Goal Projects. Macau, Cambodia, Laos, Lebanon and the Philippines are in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, in a brief meet with the press, former football player and ousted ANFA president Ganesh Thapa said that his team was preparing proposals for the FIFA’s upcoming Goal Project.

"Our main agenda will be to build infrastructure in not only Kathmandu but in four other development regions of the country," Thapa said.

"We expect the government or the local administrative bodies to provide us land needed for the construction of a football stadium along with an administrative complex, ANFA regional academy, hostel and conference hall." Thapa also added that this ambitious project will encourage FIFA to execute its project.

Nepal Win Japan In ACC Trophy

By Our Correspondent

Though Nepal had a sad beginning after it was beaten by host United Arab Emirates in the opener match of the Asian Cricket Council Trophy, it defeated Japan in the group B match held Friday. This is Nepal’s first win in any international level cricket tournament held so far.

Japan, most of whose batsmen favour a baseball-like grip of the bat, were dismissed for 133.

In reply, Nepal sped to 137 for three in the 20th over.

Meanwhile, pre-tournament favourites the United Arab Emirates virtually sealed a spot in the semi-finals at the Asian Cricket Council Trophy with a seven wicket win over the Maldives on Friday.

The UAE is certain to clinch the top spot in group B, with Nepal favoured to take the runners-up position.

The top two teams in this tournament will qualify for next year’s Asia Cup in Karachi when they will come up against Test-playing nations India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the one-day tournament.

Nepal Wins Medals

By Our Correspondent

Nepal's Susmita Kandel and Suraj Karki won medals in the World United Martial Arts Championship held in Italy recently.

Kandel won the silver medal for Nepal by defeating Greece, Germany, Peru and England in the 50 kg light contact category. She lost to host Italy in the finals. Similarly, she bagged a bronze medal in traditional kata. Likewise, Karki won a bronze medal in the 65 kg light contact category.

Players from 16 countries had taken part the championship which is played every two years among selected players aged between 16 to 35 years. Nepal's Kandel was the youngest among the participants.

SPORTS BRIEFLY

Surya Nepal Golf

Professional golfers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and host Nepal are participating in the Surya Nepal Masters Championship (SNMC) which will be played at Kathmandu’s Gokarna Golf Club from November 22.

At a press meet, the main sponsor of the championship, Surya Tobacco Company, disclosed that the prize money had doubled from last year's levels. The winner bags a cash prize of Rs. 200,000 while golfers finishing the 50th spot will receive at least Rs. 10,000. Surya Tobacco has been organising the SNMC since 1993.

Inter-school gymnastic champ

GEMS School is organising the 4th nationwide inter-school gymnastic championship from December 2. Gymnasts from nearly 50 schools around the nation will be participating in the two-day championship.

There will be three events for boys — under Class five, lower secondary and secondary level - while girls will compete in a single category. National Sports Council will provide technical assistance to the school to conduct the event successfully. GEMS school also plans to host a SAARC-school level gymnastic championship.

Bal Mandir cup soccer tourney

The Fifth National Bal Mandir Cup Inter-school Football Tournament is to kick off Tuesday at the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) football grounds.

A total of 34 schools are participating in boys' football while there are only 10 teams in girls' football. The tournament will be played on knock-out basis.

Nepal Children’s Association Football Management Committee has been organising the tournament since 1996.

JOTTINGS

BY MRJ

TO continue with the last week’s babble about my trip to Pakistan, it also afforded a welcome opportunity to interact with colleagues from countries such as South Africa, Turkey and Russia, among others.

VARIED: The South African in question, a white freelance journalist who had gone into exile in London for 10 years during the apartheid years, was an interesting bloke who had lots of interesting anecdotes to share and a robust, even ribald, sense of humour that kept everyone amused.

With a commanding height of 6 feet 2 inches, he naturally stood out as the tallest in our group. To me, he bore an uncanny likeness to Ernest Hemmingway. When told, he guffawed it off and responded by saying that he hoped he would not meet Hemmingway’s end! (Hemmingway, of course, committed suicide).

Talking about appearances, all of us were struck by the youthfulness and articulation of the Minister for Kashmir and Northern Areas, Abbas Sarfaraz Khan, not to talk of his film-actor good looks.

At a dinner that he hosted for us at the Islamabad Club, the Bangladeshi journalists and self, after comparing notes amongst ourselves earlier, asked him if he were the younger brother of Imran Khan, cricketer-turned-politician.

He laughingly denied being related to Imran Khan but added that he not only knew him well but that he and Imran were good friends.

Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar was, of course, at his ebullient best at a working lunch that he hosted — in the magnificent library of the Foreign Ministry. This jotter was pleased to note that his personal side was none other that Fauzia Abbas, whom I got to know at the UN in New York in the 1980s, and who is the daughter of the first Pakistani Ambassador to Nepal.

She said she was surprised to see me among the journalists. I told her that when I met her in the Big Apple, I was an one-assignment diplomat who entered the field from journalism and had since returned to my original vocation.

Fauzia, who studied at St. Mary’s School, Jawalakhel, while living in Kathmandu with her father years and years ago, confessed that the looked forward to visiting Nepal again.

To return to our group, however, our young Russian colleague surprised us all by not merely demanding to know, from Chief Executive Gen. Pervez Musharraf, exactly how many nuclear weapons Pakistan possessed but who then also kept on insisting that Pakistan only possessed nuclear devices — not nuclear weapons!

In any case, the reply to his queries not only made it to his newspaper in Moscow, it was played back in the Pakistani media, one day through an AFP news item from Moscow and the next via a AP news story from Moscow also based on his original story.

Incidentally, at a briefing by the Maj. Gen Rashid Querishi, the CE’s Secretary, a few days later, the army man recalling the Russian journalists’ question said that if he had been asked that very question he’d have laughed if off saying: "You don’t really expect me to answer that question."

OTHERS: The Turkish member of our team was a young woman attached to CNN’s bureau in Ankara. Though very young, she was a real toughie not only as far as the job went but also in the fine art of bazar bargaining.

In conservative Pakistan, one could see that she was a bit of a shocker: she not only did not bother to cover her head but was mostly attired in jeans and went about openly smoking like a chimney.

Money seemed not to matter a jot to her: she used her cell phone to call Turkey, or wherever, practically every hour on the hour! The editor from Amman too did a lot of calling on his cell phone, including — interesting — to consult his wife about what shawls to buy and stuff like that.

Talking about conservative society, our Thai colleague — a good looking woman and outgoing and friendly as Thais invariably are — was put off when on a few occasions she put out her hand, for an anticipated handshake. The expected hand was not extended to her. (That did not happen with Gen. Musharraf, though.)

When she told me about it, I advised her to offer her hands only if hands were extended in her direction — not otherwise.

While I’m glad to say that subsequently she followed my advice in that regard, yours faithfully met with a similar fate when he extended his hands towards a luncheon guest — a young good-looking Kashmiri woman professor of English — to find that the gesture was not reciprocated.

That, clearly, would not have happened if I’d only followed my own advice!

Like most other places in Asia, the exchange rate for foreign money varied sharply between the hotel and money exchange establishments in the bazaar. However, it later became plain that the rates varied quite a bit in those establishments. From that one can say that it would pay the traveller to Islamabad to survey the scene a bit before changing his/her foreign moolah into Pakistan rupees.

Unlike on a previous trip, I had no difficulty finding paan shops for the occasional chew. I also tried the local ‘julebi’
which I found was not as tasty but sweeter than those we get here.