KATHMANDU, Aug 8: Ganesh Thapa was on Saturday elected unopposed to the post of president of All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) for a fourth term as no other candidate filed the candidacy for the post. [break]
Thapa has already served as ANFA president for 14 years since 1995. Earlier, Thapa was elected president in 1995, 2000 and 2005, respectively.
Likewise, eight vice presidents were also elected unopposed. Those elected to the post of vice president are --Lalit Krishna Shrestha, Narendra Shrestha, Mahesh Bista, Sunil Kapali, Karma Tshering Sherpa, Bijay Narayan Manandhar, Kumar Jang Thapa and Kishor Rai. Manandhar and Kapali belonged to the recently-dissolved Nepal Football Association faction.
They were declared elected unopposed after no one filed candidacy against them in the stipulated time (17:00 pm on Saturday). Though Mani Shah, the outgoing vice president, had filed candidacy for the same post, he withdrew his candidacy later.
The ANFA academy players congratulated the winners with garlands and colors at the ANFA Complex, Satdobato.
ANFA election is slated to be held on September 7. Now, the election will be held only for 22 members of the working committee for which 36 have filed candidacies. After being elected to the post of ANFA president for the fifth time, Thapa said, "Getting support from all makes me feel more responsible and I am delighted. It has given me more enthusiasm to work with big plans during the upcoming four-year term." He expressed commitment to run a football academy each in mid- and far- west regions, to make the martyrs´ memorial league more professional and to uplift the standard of women´s football. He also declared to run the obstructed A division league from this year. The A division league has been obstructed for the last three years.
Thapa´s election comes a day after the election committee decided to reject the candidacy from his longtime rival Geeta Rana, saying that Rana had presented non-ANFA members to support her nomination.
Election committee joint coordinator Keshav Bhattarai said, "As per the ANFA statute, only ANFA members can propose of second a candidate. Geeta Rana´s nomination papers had seven District Football Associations (DFA) as her supporters that are not ANFA members."
Thapa had filed his nomination with the support of 68 out of 72 members. Three Departmental football clubs -- Nepal Police Club (NPC), Nepal Army Club (NAC) and Armed Police Force (APF) -- had kept themselves neutral while Bouddha Football Club was the only club to publicly support Rana´s candidacy.
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