"The draw will be made in the presence of all seven participating teams on Friday," ANFA General Secretary Dhirendra Pradhan said during a press conference organized at the Dasharath Stradium premises. According to Pradhan, the tournament will be held in league-cum-knockout format and the matches will be played at two venues -- Dasharath Stadium, Tripureshwar and Army ground Lagankhel. Nepal will play all its matches at the Dasharath Stadium. [break]
The youth tournament features teams from seven countries of South Asia -- host Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Afghanistan. Maldives has not registered for the event.
Bangladesh has already landed in Kathmandu while other teams will arrive by Friday. The gate money has been fixed at Rs 300 for closed parapet and Rs 100 for open parapet.
According to ANFA President Ganesh Thapa, the member associations of South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) have taken the tournament as part of preparations for the upcoming AFC U-16 Qualifiers scheduled for September. "The tournament will give exposure to young players ahead of the AFC Qualifiers," Thapa said.
This is the second edition of the tournament. Nepal had finished third in the first edition held on home ground. "This time we are hopeful of achieving good results," said Thapa, adding that the players are physically sound and have been achieving good results in recent tournaments.
ANFA Academy players dominate the newly-announced U-16 team for the championship. Most of the players were selected for the academy at 12. ANFA had picked seven players from a talent hunt program conducted nearly seven months ago to prepare a strong team for the tournament. According to Thapa, five of the seven players are likely to be included in the starting line-up.
ANFA named a 23-member U-16 team on Tuesday for the tournament. Bal Gopal Maharjan is the chief coach while Sunil Shrestha and Mrigendra Mishra (goalkeeping) are the other coaches.
The tournament´s estimated budget is Rs 7 million. SAFF has given US$ 50,000 to host the tournament while ANFA will bear the rest.
SAFF Championship draw on July 30
KATHMANDU (REPUBLICA): The draw for the SAFF Championship (senior men´s tournament) will be made on July 30, the final day of the SAFF U-16 Championship. ANFA President Ganesh Thapa made such announcement during a press conference held at the Dasharath Stadium on Wednesday. A 40-member Nepali team is undergoing closed camp training for the regional football fiesta under Polish coaches Jack Stefanowski and Richard Orlowski. The tournament will feature teams from all eight member countries of the SAARC region.
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