The NA is organizing a national women´s football tournament for the first time, starting from Monday, to encourage women´s sports in Nepal.
“We are organizing sports events so that we can build relation with the public during the time of peace,” said Major General Victor Rana, when asked why the Army is showing keen interest in sports in the recent days. [break]
Speaking at a press conference organized by the NA at the Army Officers´ Club on Thursday, Maj Gen Rana added, “With the infrastructure and skilled manpower that we have, we believe that Nepal Army can contribute a lot to the sports sector of Nepal.”
Rana told reporters that the NA was particularly interested in organizing women´s football because of the good potential it holds not just in Nepal but in South Asia.
“We decided to organize a result oriented game. If we support women´s football, we are confident that the national team can fetch medals in the South Asian level,” he said.
The other reason for the NA to organize women´s football is because hardly any women´s tournament is held.
“We discussed the issue with the officials of All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) and they said very few national level tournaments have been held for women footballers. So we decided to organize the First CoAS National Women´s Football Tournament.”
Rana informed that there are 25 women footballers in the rank and file of the Army undergoing training since the last three years and 18 of them have been selected for the upcoming tournament, which will be held at the football ground of the Army headquarters in Bhadrakali from July 29 to August 2.
Altogether eight teams will be competing on knockout basis in the five-day tournament, which is being organized with the technical support from ANFA.
Besides the host Tribhuvan Army Club, the other participating teams are Nepal Police Club, Armed Police Force (APF) Club, Eastern Region, Central Region, Western Region, Mid-Western Region and Far-Western Region.
Winner of the tournament will bag a purse of Rs 300,000 while the runner-up and the third position holder will receive Rs 150,000 and Rs 75, 000 respectively.
The best player of the tournament will receive a scooter while the best goalkeeper, best defender, best midfielder and best forward will get Rs 10,000 each.
The Army Club takes on Western Region in the inaugural match on Tuesday while the departmental team´s other strong title contenders Nepal Police Club (NPC) and Armed Police Force (APF) Club are pitted in the other pool and will open their matches against Central Region and Mid Western Region respectively on Wednesday.
APF had won the previous edition of the national women´s football championship, the Ncell Cup, while Police had lifted the title of the women´s football league last year in Dhangadhi.
Lieutenant Colonel Prakash Jung Karki, chief of the Army´s sports department, told Republica that the NA had earlier organized national handball tournament in Pokhara last year.
Nepal Army´s involvement in the decade-long Maoist insurgency has now reached a logical conclusion with the inclusion of 1352 former Maoist combatants into the national army last month.
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