Kathmandu, June 8: Nepal has become the third country in Asia to be awarded with FIFA’s ambitious Goal Project that aims to develop football at grass root level by addressing problems encountered by football sectors.

“The FIFA’s ‘Goal Project’ to Nepal is a reward for All Nepal Football Association’s endeavours to develop the football in Nepal during the past five years,” ANFA President Ganesh Thapa told a press conference declaring the FIFA’s Goal Project to Nepal.

Thapa said that despite the attempts of other South Asian nations for the project, Nepal is lucky to get the much-talked about FIFA project.

“A FIFA team will be visiting Nepal within next two or three months to get information on the various problems of football in Nepal,” President Thapa said. It will take five to six months to start the project in Nepal, he added.

FIFA, under the project, will try to address the problems of the Nepalese football and seek ANFA’s proposal to impart the edge to the project, Thapa said.

Thapa further said that the effectiveness of the project depends on the performance of national football association in chalking out needs of Nepalese football, he said.

FIFA will earmark about one million dollars per year for the project in Nepal that aims at developing football administration, training youth football programme, infrastructure building and tailor made development projects based on the needs of the national associations.

FIFA, at present, has been running the Goal Project at eleven countries of the world. Out of these eleven, Asia has now three countries— the Palestine, Jordan and Nepal— where the Goal Projects have been launched.