KATHMANDU, Oct 7: In a prize distribution ceremony held on the last day of the Martyrs Memorial B Division League at ANFA Complex, a group of local fans of Chyasal Youth Club were at the stadium with the local Newari musical instruments to cheer the new champion. Fans chanted slogans to support the team playing musical instruments while lifting the trophy during the celebration.

Chyasal, based in the Chyasal of Lalitpur, was one of the few second tier clubs to drag the local crowd at the stadium throughout the league. 

“Without local support we wouldn’t have completed our journey to the A division,” said a delighted Dinesh Byanjankar, the president of the Chyasal, which joined elite rank of domestic football for the first in club history winning B division. Local fans played big part in the title winning journey of Chyasal as their role was not just limited to motivations aspect but they were also the main source of the budget for the club throughout the league. 

“We didn’t have major sponsor. The funds collected from the local fans and the local community was the main source of our budget,” said Byajankar. The total budget of the club for the B division league was about Rs 3.5 million and it was collected without the help from notable sponsor.

Chyasal club which was established in 2037 BS under the leadership of Ram Byanjankar and Govinda Byanjankar among other locals with the view of playing football has set an example of what a local club can achieve if it utilizes the relation with local fans and local community. 

Chyasal was promoted to the C division in 2063 BS, three years later it climbed to second tier securing second position in the league. They took seven years to meet their target of gaining promotion to top division. 

“We made roadmap in order to earn promotion for A division after I was elected club president in 2063 BS. And it took a bit longer time to meet our target,” said Byanjankar, who played A division football with current national champion Three Star for 10 long years. 

Like other clubs majority of the players in Chyasal are from outside the capital including Morang, Jhapa, Kailali, Syangja but local players also had strong contribution for the promotion. Captain Rabin Byanjankar is a local player among other seven.

“Obviously it is too hard to make a team full of local players but we have tried to give chance to local players as well. As a result, we included seven local players in the first team including the captain,” said Byanjankar.

It’s very tough for the clubs to get promotion to the first tier and it’s harder than that to stay there as new comers have to compete with old boys who have comparatively better resources, players, budget, sponsors and recognition. Byanjankar is known about the difficulties to sustain in the A division and have plans to preserve their first tier status. 

“We have made plans and will discuss them in the formal meeting of the club,” added Byanjankar. 

“We will try to find sponsors as sponsorship is very important to run the A division club. We reached here due to the economic support from our fans and local community but that won’t be enough for us to sustain in the A division so we need to find sponsors,” said Byanjankar. 

“Current squad is not good enough to compete with bigger clubs in the top division so we need to make the squad better and bigger. Scouting the young players out of the Kathmandu Valley and signing them to create an exciting team will be our primary plan,” said Byanjankar when asked about the future plans to sustain in A division.

Majority of the clubs do not have training ground but Chyasal is lucky as it has an agreement with ANFA and Lalitpur sub-metropolitan city to use the Chyasal ground for training. Byanjankar said that the club will utilize the ground to the optimum for training and practice matches. 
 

 
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• chyasals
 
• promotion
 
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