National football squad leaves for Iraq

April 10, 2001
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Kathmandu, April 10: After a long period of uncertainty in the national football governing body, a 23 member Nepali soccer squad left for Iraq Monday to participate in the Asian Group-6 qualifying matches of the World Cup to be held next year in Japan and South Korea.

Nepal, Iraq, Kazakhastan and Macao are in the grouping. Two coaches and two officials are accompanying the team captained by Upendra Man Singh. Tashi Ghale is the team leader. The team was selected only two weeks ago following a compromise between rival All Nepal Football Associations (ANFA), the National Sports Council (NSC) and the Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC).

World soccer governing body FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) recognises ANFA headed by Ganesh Thapa while the government, NSC and NOC recognise another ANFA headed by Gita Rana. The dispute erupted seven months ago between the claimants and Nepal’s most popular sport suffered as the venue of the group matches was shifted from Kathmandu to Iraq and Kazakhastan.

NSC General Secretary Binod Shanker Palikhe and Thapa bid the team farewell at the airport as Rana stayed back. Sports commentators do not expect the team to do well because of the lack of preparation for the matches to be played later this month. The players had threatened to boycott the matches until the dispute between the two parties was resolved.