Football bringing disgrace to the nation (Commentary)

Kathmandu / November 25: Barely six months after the devastating earthquake that paralysed the country and around two month after the ‘unofficial economic blockade’ on Nepal by India, Nepal took suffered another unprecedented catastrophe in form of the alleged involvement of our national football players in match-fixing scandal.

The arrest of then sitting and former national players including captain Sagar Thapa, vice-captain Sudip Rai, goalkeeper Ritesh Thapa, former national defender Bikash Singh Chhetri and former national player and former coach of Three Star Club Anjan KC over their alleged involvement in sports-fixing, not only shook the country and home football fans alike, but alsoraised a serious question mark on the development and integrity of football, the most popular sport in the country.

It may be noted that the accused footballers are awaiting their final verdict over the charge, while All Nepal Football Association (ANFA), the only governing body of football in Nepal, and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the governing body of association football in Asia and Australia, have suspended the accused from all football-related activities at the national and international level.

And now to make matters even worse for the sport, the Federation of International Football Association’s (FIFA) has banned ANFA President Ganesh Thapa from football activities at both national and international level for 10 years for his involvement in financial irregularities during the 2009 and 2011 elections for the FIFA.

Unlike the tainted footballers, this is however not the first time that ANFA president has been caught in a scandal related to financial irregularities. His 19-year reign in office has been marked with repeated incidents of accusations of financial embezzlement and high-handedness.

Following a complaint filed by ANFA office-bearers, a parliamentary committee had also ordered concerned government agencies to investigate against Thapa and bring him to the court of justice.

These bitter and unfortunate incidents are likely to have a negative impact on the development of Nepali football as it has long failed to put its mark in the international football beyond South Asia.

During its some 43 years of international participation, the Nepali football team has played against 26 nations outside of South Asia. However, it has failed to perform well in the matches except for its best performance in the 2002 FIFA World Cup with the national team securing two wins in four matches.

Nepal’s position in FIFA rankings is going down as well. Currently, Nepal is in 192nd position in the FIFA rankings. It has been constantly slipping down. Nepal was in 124thposition in the rankings published in 1993. Comparing Nepal with South Asian countries, it has failed to fare well in football over the years. Minnows Bhutan has progressed in football and is now in the 180th position against 201st in 2000. Likewise, Afghanistan has also progressed in football, managing 156th position in the rankings at present against 196th in 2003.

Nepal was once considered a stronghold in football in South Asia. But, over the years, the performance of the national team has been deteriorating. Nepal, except for Sri Lanka being in 194th position in the FIFA rankings at present, lies at the bottom of the ranking among the South Asian countries.

Nepal has not been able to progress as much in football in its some 65 years of history. Given the position of Nepali football in international level and South Asia, Nepal has a long way to go. There are numbers of shortcomings, resulting in poor performance of national football and that concerned authorities should take necessary steps to improve standard of football lest the Nepali football should go from bad to worse.

Perhaps, the recent scandals should be a lesson to all concerned authorities and that they are warranted to abide by the norms set by AFC and FIFA so that the country is not disgraced again.

And, as for Nepali football authorities, it is both challenge and opportunity for them to correct past shortcomings and improve the standard of football at national and international level. The immediate effort should however be to address the complications arising from the implication of Nepali footballers in match-fixing and the suspension of Nepal’s football chief Thapa by FIFA.

As Nepal has no laws related to match-fixing, our football authorities should come up with such laws and regulations like most foreign countries like anti-corruption units (as the English Cricket Board, among others, have done) to check such malpractice in the field of sports.

And, as for the ANFA, which holds sole responsibility to steer the progress of football in the country, it is high time that it should come up with effective measures towards that ends and not let the institution be implicated in any kind of incidents that may defame the institution and the game of football as a whole. RSS