“AFC had set a standard as well as the criteria to improve. On the basis of our experience, I´m sure of meeting those criteria before the date set for the game,” said ANFA President Ganesh Thapa, who is also an AFC Vice-president.[break]
AFC executive committee had declared Nepal a provisional host for the Challenge Cup on July 29 after the organizing committee for AFC President Cup and Challenge Cup took the decision to give the hosting opportunity to Nepal through voting. Nepal had received four votes while the Maldives had received three. Members of the committee who were against Nepal had raised concerns about physical infrastructure and ground conditions of Nepal.
An inspection team of the AFC set to visit Kathmandu on Wednesday will submit its report to the AFC. According to ANFA President Thapa, the AFC meeting on November 23 will take the final decision on the issue.
Targeting the tournament, ANFA has been developing infrastructures at the Dasharath Stadium and Halchowk Ground, the match venues for the tournament.
Meanwhile, ANFA has been developing grounds at St Xavier´s School, Buddhi Bikash Mandal, Nepal Police Headquarters, ANFA Technical Center, Chyasal, and ANFA Complex, Satdobato, as training grounds. ANFA has been building changing rooms and parapet at Buddhi Bikash Mandal, Lalitpur.
“We have requested the Chinese government through the government of Nepal to get the flood lights at the Dasharath Stadium repaired, and the Chinese Embassy has already responded positively. Once the flood lights are repaired, we can host all the matches at the Dasharath Stadium,” said Thapa.
Thapa also claimed that the National Sports Council (NSC) has assured ANFA that Dasharath Stadium would not be provided for other events before the Challenge Cup.
Nepal has successfully hosted the group stage matches of the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 last April and the group stage matches of the 2010 edition as well.
The upcoming Challenge Cup is the fourth edition and Nepal has qualified for the final round. North Korea, Palestine, the Philippines, India, Turkmenistan, the Maldives and Tajikistan are the other teams that qualified for the final round.
Nepal had reached the semifinals of the first edition of AFC in 2006 in Bangladesh, the final round in 2008 in India, but could not qualify for the third edition in 2010.
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