The organizer All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) seemed to be in a rush to start the tournament. One important reason to start the league in a hurry was to cover up Nepal´s poor performance in the Challenge Cup and divert the critics´ attention toward the league. [break]
Haste makes waste and this has been seen in the super league rounds. Without adequate homework for the super league, ANFA has implemented some rules against the universal footballing practice.
The super league participated by top eight out of 16 teams has some strange provisions. The points earned in the super league will be added to the points already earned in the first round of the league and the number of goals scored and conceded in the second round will also be added in the first round figures.
But, surprisingly, and, against the accepted norms of football, the head-to-head record of the first round of the league will not be counted in the second round. Another strange provision is of the yellow card ´warnings.´
In the first round, ANFA had introduced the system of a match ban after three yellow cards in three different matches which is also in contravention of the international practice, according to which a player gets a match ban after getting two yellow cards. The same system is in effect in the super league round as well.
ANFA has also courted another controversy by deciding to slap a one-match ban in the first match of the league round on those players who have been shown three yellow cards in the previous round. But surprisingly, players booked with one or two yellow cards in the first round can get away with the rule because their cards will be scrapped and new counting will begin for them in the super league.
Meanwhile, ANFA has introduced head-to-head system in the league scrapping goal difference provision to determine a team´s position in case points are tied. Although the provision created much confusion in the initial stage, it has been helpful in minimizing match fixing to some extent.
For instance, In the 2010 league, Boys Union Club become the last team to be relegated to the second-tier B Division on the basis of goal inferiority with Armed Police Force (APF) despite having equal 22 points. In its last match, APF had defeated Machhindra FC 8-0 which turned out to be the highest margin results in the league. Boys Union blamed the unexpected result to a pre-planned strategy of APF, which retained its top-tier status at the expense of Boys Union.
Had the head-to-head system been used then, APF wouldn´t have been tempted to score so many goals, by fair means or by foul play, because the goal superiority would have counted for nothing.
Although any outcome is possible in football, the result between relegation struggler APF and sixth place finishers Machhindra gave enough reasons to cast doubt if the result was fairly achieved.
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