The important events of Nepali football throughout the year are as follows:[break]
Women´s team finishes second in South Asia
For the third time in a row, Nepali women´s national football team finished in the second position in the South Asian football competition. The women´s team´s quest of lifting the title of the Second SAFF Championship again remained an elusive dream. Nepal was defeated 3-1 by India for the second time in a row during the event held in September. In the 11th South Asian Games (SAG) as well, Nepal had faced a similar fate against India in the gold-medal clash.
Sponsor of national team
Nepal got international sports kits manufacturer Plus One as the team´s official sponsor for a period of six years. As per the deal, the national men´s, women´s and age group teams must wear sports kits of Plus One and Nepal will get $ 450,000 per annum for the period of six years in cash and kind. The official declaration of the deal will be made in February, according to ANFA President Thapa.
Enrollment of Rohit Chand in Indonesian Club
Nepali international Rohit Chand was recruited by Indonesian premier division outfit PSPS Pekanbaru on December 24. With his signing, the 20-year-old left-back of the Nepali national team also became the first Nepali player to be recruited in top level football club outside South Asia.
Chand, who will get $ 3,500 as monthly salary and $ 100 as his fee per match, also became the highest paid Nepali athlete. In his debut season in top flight, Chand had played from Machhindra FC of Nepal in 2010 and in the very next year he was recruited by the I-League side Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Final rounds of Challenge Cup
Nepal staged the biggest ever football fiesta, the final rounds of AFC Challenge Cup in Kathmandu in March. Nepal, however, had a miserable exit from the group stage at home ground finishing at the bottom of Group A without scoring a single goal. Nepal lost all three matches played. But earning the right to host the event is itself an achievement.
FIFA chief Sepp Blatter had arrived in Nepal to inaugurate the event. The Swiss became the second executive chief of the world football governing body to visit Nepal after Joao Havelange during the 1980s. DPR Korea became the champion of the event and booked a ticket to the finals of Asian Cup.
Women´s league
The first ever women´s league was held in Dhangadhi, Kailali in December. Nepal Police Club secured top position finishing with 19 points, one more than second-placed Armed Police Force. Altogether eight teams including five regional teams and three departmental teams -- Nepal Police, Nepal Army and APF -- had participated in the event.
Big increment in cash prize of the league
ANFA has made a sizeable increment in the cash prize for the winners of the ongoing Martyrs Memorial Red Bull A Division League. ANFA has announced a total cash prize of Rs 13.3 million -- Rs 7.5 million for the winner and Rs 3.5 million for the runner-up. In the last edition, the winner and the runner-up were given Rs 2 million and 1 million respectively.
Thapa family receives cash from Bin Hammam
The $ 100,000 that ANFA President Ganesh Thapa´s family received from ousted former Asian Football Confederation boss Mohamad Bin Hammam courted controversy.
The incident was revealed in July in Nepal following reports of international news agencies which stated that Gaurav, a staffer at AFC and the son of Ganesh Thapa, received the amount from AFC coffers.
Almost all national dailies carried the news in the front page. Thapa clarified that his son had taken the amount as loan from Hammam and that his family had already paid it back.
Unlike the expectations of many, Thapa who has been ruling the roost in ANFA for nearly two decades, was not even questioned during the annual general assembly of the football governing body a couple of weeks ago in the capital.
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