KATHMANDU, Dec 13: Nepal national women’s team has started training from Wednesday for the fifth SAFF Women’s Championship, which is being held in Nepal after Sri Lanka’s withdrawal as the host.
However, the training session was affected by the ongoing Martyr’s Memorial A-Division League which is being held at the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) Complex in Satdobato of Lalitpur and Armed Police Force (APF)’s Stadium in Halchowk of Kathmandu.
The team is training in the morning, as it lacked a ground to train during the day, according to head coach Hari Khadka.
Thoughtful and gritty
A total of 34 players were called for preliminary selection. Some new players who did well in the Chief of Army Staffs (CoAS) Women’s Football Tournament including some age group players have been called.
A total of seven South Asian teams are taking part in the tournament. Host Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan are placed in Group A, while India, Maldives and Sri Lanka are pitted in Group B.
The top two teams of each group will qualify for the semifinals of the tournament, which will be played in league-cum-knockout format.
According to SAFF’s fixtures schedule, the tournament was earlier scheduled to start from Sunday, but as Sri Lanka announced it would not organize the tournament, Nepal got the responsibility to organize it.
Then, SAFF unveiled new fixtures list, scheduling the tournament from March 11 through 21. The tournament will be played at the Biratanagar Martyr’s Stadium in Biratnagar.
