Nepal is currently hosting the two week long football festival which began on May 10. Five countries including India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanak, Bhutan and Nepal are participating in the festival. [break]
"A country must host the festival at least for two times in row as per the rule of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) thus we will also host the next edition," Thapa revealed and expressed his desire of hosting the 2014 festival as well.
"We wish to hold the 2014 edition of the festival so that we could hold the event fourth time in a row. If we get the chance, it will be very helpful for the development of the country´s grassroots level football," Thapa said.
The festival provides chance not only for competition among five countries participating in the event but is also an opportunity for training youth coaches, referees, national head coaches and physiotherapists under qualified trainers from the AFC. Currently, all four training are underway at the ANFA headquarters.
The entire festival is funded by AFC.
AFC head of the youth football and project manager John White opined that the festival was mainly for overall development of football. According to White, the festival was a kind of educational program for coaches, referees, physiotherapists and players. White also stated that the level of Asian football has increased following introduction of the program in Asia since 2004.
Meanwhile, the matches under festival of football began on Saturday. The matches scheduled to be held at the Dasharath Stadium will be held at the ANFA ground, Satdobato, if bandas continue. The matches will be held under round robin basis.
The 22 players of each team will be divided into two groups with 11 players in each group. The matches will be played under two formats--30 minutes format and 60 minutes format.
Meanwhile, the participating football teams from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Bhutan arrived in the capital on Thursday.
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