Thapa made such announcement at a press conference organized to brief mediapersons about the preparations for the AFC President´s Cup group C qualifiers scheduled to begin in the capital on Wednesday.[break]
"We have planned to hold this tournament during the last week of July, ahead of the AFC U-16, which will also help young players gain international experience," said Thapa who is also the president of the AFC Challenge Cup and the President´s Cup.
"Nepal has been given the responsibility to set up the format for U-16 by South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) meeting and correspond to the SAFF members," Thapa said, adding, "Five countries including host Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have confirmed their participation, and I am hopeful that Afghanistan, Maldives and Bhutan will also compete in the event."
The SAFF meeting was held in India about a week ago.
The AFC U-16 qualifiers are scheduled to be held in September.
At the press meet, Thapa also revealed that the first SAFF Club Championship will be held in India from September 1-15. He, however, did not disclose the format of the tournament.
He also informed that Nepal had filed its bid to host the final round of AFC Challenge Cup.
Preparations complete for President´s Cup
ANFA said that it has completed all the preparations for the President´s Cup group C qualifiers to be held in the capital from Wednesday.
The event features the domestic league winners of third-tier football nations of Asia as classified by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Nepal Police Club of the host, Taiwan Power Company of Chinese Taipei, Balkan FC of Turkmenistan and WAPDA FC of Pakistan are pitted in group D.
Altogether six teams -- top two teams from each of the three groups -- will qualify for the final round of the event. The six teams will then be divided into two groups of three teams each and the winners of both the group will vie for the title.
Reading a press statement ANFA General Secretary Dhirendra Pradhan said that the manpower deputed by the AFC to host the event -- match commissioner, referee, referee assessor, assistant referees -- have already arrived in the capital.
Balkan FC has already arrived while WAPDA and TPC are arriving on Monday evening.
The estimated cost of the event is Rs 5.4 million. ANFA gets US$ 60,000 from AFC on behalf of four teams ($ 15,000 per team) for management. ANFA has estimated to collect one million rupees from ticket sales. The ticket price is Rs 500 for VIP parapet and Rs 200 for ordinary parapet.
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