KATHMANDU, Sept 25: Incumbent ANFA Acting President Narendra Shrestha and vice president Karma Tsering Sherpa are set to vie for the post of president in the upcoming elections of the football governing body of Nepal scheduled for October 24. 

Organizing a press conference at ANFA Complex, Satdobato, Sherpa announced his candidacy for the post of president on Sunday. 

“The first phase of ANFA cleaning campaign, which we had started for the overall development of Nepali football, has been completed. My candidacy is the starting of the second phase to purge ANFA from irregularities,” said Sherpa after filing his candidacy. 

Another candidate Narendra Shrestha had filed his candidacy last Friday. 

“My candidacy is to establish a policy of economic and administrative transparency in ANFA,” said Sherpa, adding, “ANFA should be run under collective leadership. My candidacy is to establish that as well.”

On the same occasion, Dipak Khati also announced his candidacy for the post of vice president from Sherpa's panel meaning he will compete for the post with former national captain Upendra Man Singh and Mani Kunwar. Singh, who is backed by associations of players, coaches and referees, not associated to any panel while Kunwar is from Narendra Shrestha's panel. Both of them had filed their candidacy on Friday.

“We want to address the demands that we had raised to make ANFA better. So my candidacy is to create an environment to address all those demands,” said Khati, a former member of ANFA working committee. 

Revealing the contents of his letter of resolution, Sherpa said that ANFA will decentralize football-related activities to the districts if he gets elected. He also pledged to establish academies in all districts of the country.  “We need to focus on grassroots football as that's the backbone of the nation's football. So, the establishment of the academies is very important. Under my tenure, ANFA will start football training for young players in all districts as the primary step to install the academies,” said Sherpa, who is also the president of A Division outfit Himalaya Sherpa Club. 

“I found that ANFA had submitted reports to the AFC about running academies in all districts in order to receive grants from the football governing body of Asia. During my tenure, academies won't be just on papers. I will invest the grants given by the AFC in all the districts for the development of young players,” pledged Sherpa. 

His other resolutions consist of requesting the government to construct one stadium in all the provinces and two big stadiums to hold international matches; holding national league on time; organizing age-group and school-level tournaments and categorizing the tournaments that are organized out of Kathmandu Valley and funding them. 

The district associations of Dolakha, Lamjung, Dang, Baglung, Ilam, Sunsari, Dhanusha, Bhojpur and clubs including Himalayan Sherpa, Bhagwati, Machindra FC, Tushal Youth Club are the proposer of Sherpa for the candidacy.

The proposal was seconded by district associations of Taplejung, Panchthar, Morang, Udayapur, Rupendahi, Kanchanpur, Parsa, Kaski, Kanchanpur and Jawalakhel, and Friends Club.

As per the statue of ANFA, each presidential candidate should have at least five each proposer and seconder.  

 
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