KATHMANDU, Aug 16: The All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) has increased its General Assembly members from 77 to 92 by amending its statute in the General Assembly organized in Chitwan on Wednesday. The football governing body went against the directive of the National Sports Council (NSC) in amending the statute.
The General Assembly has increased the voting counts of the B-Division clubs from nine to 11 and the C-Division clubs from five to nine.
The ANFA has also said that the top four teams of ANFA President’s Cup will get voting rights. The assembly also decided to increase the number of district football associations by five.
Currently, 45 district associations have the rights to vote at the ANFA General Assembly. As per the new provision, 50 associations will have voting rights.
ANFA amends statute, decides to re-elect 31 members
Likewise, according to the amendment, four clubs from the association tournaments will be included in the President’s Cup, along with top six teams from the Martyr’s Memorial A-Division League.
The ANFA also informed that the tournament will be organized in national league standard. All the district champions will play in an association league and the four top teams will be selected for the national league (President’s Cup).
The General Assembly, which also passed the ANFA’s financial and employee regulations, decided to deduct points from the bottom three clubs of the A-Division League as the association had earlier decided to organize the league without relegation system for this year.
As per updated plans, the team to finish last will have its three points deduced next year, while the second team from bottom will have its two points deducted. The third team from bottom will only have a point deducted. Also, the bottom teams will have to pay Rs 500,000 in fine as part of the preparations of the next seasons’ league.
The NSC on Monday had written a letter to the ANFA directing it to remove the statute amendment agenda from the General Assembly.
“The NSC itself has not gone into a federal structure. After the country went into a federal structure, the NSC is working to make rules and laws according to it, so the NSC had directed the ANFA to not decide on any structural issue immediately,” NSC’s press advisor Rohit Kumar Dahal told Republica.
“After the NSC prepares the statute and regulations of all the sports bodies of the country, every association needs to move along the same direction. Even if the ANFA amends a statute or makes a regulation, it might not work later. That was the reason the NSC had directed the ANFA to not make any changes,” Dahal added.
