Kathmandu, April 12
Nepal’s national football team, which was staring at the possibility of ending the calendar year without playing any tournament, is likely to get an international fixture in November 2016.
At a recent meeting of the AFC’s programme committee in Malaysia, a proposal has been presented to organise a tournament for eight low-ranked teams including Nepal. Such a tournament would replace the AFC Challenge Cup, which was phased out recently.
If the proposal is passed, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Brunei, Macau, Mongolia, and two other low-ranked teams will play the 14-day tournament, which has not been named so far. The tournament will be held every four years.
After winning the Banga Bandhu Cup and the SAG gold in Football, Nepal’s national side did not have any major tournament to play for the entire year. The team had to wait till the end of December 2017 to play the SAF Championship in Bangladesh.
The meeting also proposed that tournament be played at a centralised venue, providing not only a minimum of three matches, but also including coaching, refereeing, technical and event management education courses.
