Nepal’s football revolution will be bottom-up

Have you been to the official ANFA website (www.the-anfa.com) recently? No need to waste bandwidth visiting it, I can assure you - it is hopeless!

Photo: Gopal Chitrakar (Reuters)

However shoddy the ANFA website might be, no one is really complaining about it. Why? Because there are plenty of alternatives, like GoalNepal, that give us all the Nepali football news, results and multimedia we are looking for.

But imagine if there were no websites like GoalNepal. We would probably all be kicking and screaming about how ANFA is not doing its job, that ANFA has the wrong priorities, that ANFA does not care about the fans and that the Government of Nepal should donate a few laptops and servers to ANFA.

With GoalNepal and the many other up and coming Nepali football/sports websites, blogs and Facebook Pages out there – whether ANFA has a good or bad website really is inconsequential. The Nepali football information we desire is easily accessible anyway.

Nepal’s Internet sports information boom proves that not everything needs to start from the top. The Government of Nepal (GON), National Sports Council (NSC) and ANFA are currently just too politicized and have too many vested interests to deliver sound planning and strategy to take football and sports in Nepal to a level that hardcore fans dream about. It will thus be private individuals, groups and organizations that will have to play the lead role in developing Nepali football.

We are already seeing this in action sporadically across the country.

• Nepal Sports Journalist Forum (NSJF) annually hosts the Sports Award which has done much to motivate and encourage aspiring footballers and other sportsmen.

• Oshonik Club runs women’s football camps across the Western region and many of Nepal’s women footballers have ties to the Nepalgunj based club.

• Social Welfare Sports Center conducts youth training in the Nayabazaar Dhara neighborhood of Kathmandu and has produced several Martyrs League ‘A’ Division level players.

• Sahara Club every year hosts the Aaha Gold Cup, which has become Nepal’s preeminent Football Cup Tournament and has helped inspire others clubs and communities to also organize similar events.

• NRNs and Nepalis working abroad have been making a contribution to football in a variety of ways including equipment/financial donations and as liaisons between promising Nepali players and foreign clubs.

• Ambitious entrepreneurs opened up the Futsal Arena in Thamel.

And right on cue, Nepal’s top soccer star Rohit Chand just the other day donated Rs. 30,000 worth of equipment to help support football in the MidWestern Region.

The current challenge is that in Nepal there are only a handful of people like Bhoj Raj Shahi (Founder and President of Oshonik Club) and Bikram Thapa (Founder and Editor of GoalNepal) out there who are working passionately day and night to do their part to uplift football in Nepal, while in other parts of the globe there are thousands if not tens of thousands similar persons.

Though billion dollar clubs like Barcelona and Manchester United grab all the headlines, we need to remember that 95% of the worldwide football ecosystem is made up of clubs, tournaments, coaches, referees, administrators, etc. that are mostly run and operated by locals and volunteers.

Unfortunately in Nepal we still have a tendency to look to higher powers, be it God, Government or Ganesh [Thapa] (i.e. ANFA), to solve all our problems and the attitude of “If they are not doing anything, why should I?” prevails. As an example, there are perhaps over a thousand registered football clubs across the country, but only several dozen could be deemed as “active”. If you talk to the leadership of most Nepali clubs they’ll blame their inactivity on the lack of support from the three “G’s” mentioned above.

Undoubtedly, it would be ideal if the grassroots football movement worked closely with and were supported by top level institutions (GON, NSC, ANFA). However it is not essential, especially in this day and age with so many resources available at our finger tips. With the Internet and other new media channels we can all be football experts, we can all develop links, we can all raise awareness and funds for projects we are passionate about.

Tons of coaching, sports management, marketing information and resources can be found online. You no longer have to attend AFC or FIFA courses to understand how football works. Being an ANFA official is not a prerequisite to communicate with the international football fraternity.

The power to develop football in Nepal is essentially in our hands. So stop fantasizing about what the Government, NSC and ANFA could do, should do, needs to do and roll-up your sleeves and simply do it yourself! Start a fan club, create a website, learn to be a coach, organize youth training, donate a football, teach your grandmother the offside rule – you’ll have made your contribution to Nepal's football revolution.

Why Nepal Police Club keeps winning

A few reasons why NPC keeps winning:

1. Year round training

2. Private training ground

3. Same core group of players and coaches every year

4. Constantly scouting for new talents (e.g. Bharat Khawas)

5. Great coach

Almost all Nepali clubs lack at least 3 of those points, if not more.

Turn National League into Champions League

"ANFA would be wise to drastically simplify the National League system by going to a less complex Champions League model. Let each district run its own league, with the Martyrs League being the district competition for Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. Then assign a quota to each district for qualification to the Nepal Champions League. As an example Martyrs League would get 8 teams; strong districts like Kaski, Sunsari and Rupandehi 2 teams each; and weaker districts like Ilam and Syangja 1 team each. You can then have a World Cup type tournament where single leg group matches are played in different cities across the country and the knockout phase is held in Kathmandu."

Read the full article at GoalNepal.com 

Pokhara sports photos

Want take an award winning sports photo? Go to Pokhara! 

Photo by Sudarshan Ranjit

Photo by Kyohei Fujioka

  

Photo by Udipt Singh Chhetry

Match Fixing in football

I want to write something about match fixing and unruly behavior in Nepali football, but honestly, no one cares except for a handful of diehard fans. Everyone - players, coaches, officials, etc. are in on it and the media not bothered to do any investigative reporting. Nepali football has become more like a chess or poker game - it's more about strategy off the field than the action on the field.

If someone like me who lives abroad has so much inside information on fixed matches, I can only imagine what those around Nepali football fulltime must know.

After the Machhindra-Bansbari fiasco in last seasons Martyrs League A Division, I presumed that the Nepali football fraternity would think twice before manipulating matches, but seeing what is going on in the B Division, it seems it is back to business as usual. 

National League = Champions League

If you think about it, the Nepal National League is actually a Champions League. The top 8 teams  in the Martyrs League 'A' Division are joined by the champions of the East Zone and West Zone. This is similar to how England, Spain and Germany get 4 bids to the UEFA Champions League, while countries like Ireland only get 1 bid.

There is no promotion/relegation and next year all clubs will have to start from scratch and qualify for the tournament again.

Eventually ANFA should combine the National League with the Martyrs League. Create a Premier division and then have an A Division, B Division and C Division below it. B and C Divisions can be regional to reduce costs and travel.

By the way - this is actually Nepal's 3rd National League. First two were held in 1998 and 1999. In 1998 Valley Sporting (Pokhara) and Munal Club (Jhapa) participated. In 1999 The Boys Group (Dharan) and a club from Rupandehi were the non-Kathmandu clubs. Mahendra Police Club (now NPC) won the League both times.

• 1998 National League results
• 1999 National League results

Best fans in the world?

Photo courtesy of NepalSportsPhoto

Despite Nepal’s ineptitude in international sport, it is amazing how passionate Nepali sports fans are. There was no better demonstration of this than in the beginning of December (2011) when simultaneously  Nepal’s National Cricket and Football Teams were participating in the ACC Twenty20 Cup and the SAFF Championship respectively.

The TU Cricket Ground was packed to the brim for each one of Nepal’s cricket matches and thousands of Nepalis made their way to Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, India to root for Nepal’s Football Team. While thousands of fans at sporting events is nothing out of the ordinary, the greater context of these events would suggest otherwise.

The ACC Twenty20 Cup is a tournament for Asia’s cricketing minnows. In a day and age when even Test sides struggle to draw healthy crowds, for tens of thousands of fans to cram into the TU Cricket Ground, an absolute bare bones stadium, for matches against obscure opponents is impressive.

Similarly the SAFF Championship is a tournament for the weaklings of international football (i.e. South Asian nations). Attendance for the 2011 edition of the tournament was abysmal, the one bright spot being the Nepali contingent at all the Nepal matches. At least in the group stages, Nepali fans even outnumbered those of the host nation - India.

All this is nothing new. I’ve been fortunate enough to watch Nepali athletes and teams across the globe and seen the passion of Nepali sports fans on many occasions. Here are but a few examples:

1997 SAFF Cup (Kathmandu)

Dasharath Rangasala had an overflowing crowd of around 30,000 for the finals of the tournament, a match which did not even feature Nepal. India and Maldives were the finalists.

1998 Asian Games (Bangkok)

There were dozens of fervent Nepali fans at the Karate and Taekwondo events, more than any other nation except for the hosts Thailand.

1999 AFC Asian Olympic Qualifiers (Hong Kong)

Thousands of Nepali fans attended Nepal’s three matches at the Hong Kong Stadium. They outnumbered locals in the match against Hong Kong. In one of the most infamous events in Asian Soccer, hundreds of Nepali supporters invaded the pitch and then chased and beat-up Malaysian players after a Malaysian player became aggressive against a Nepali player.

2006 AFC U16 Championship (Singapore)

Nearly 2,500 Nepalis attended each one of Nepal’s matches in this youth competition. The non-Nepal games were lucky to even draw 500 fans. The Nepal-Singapore match drew a greater number of Gorkhalis than Singaporeans.

2008 Prime Ministers Cup (Kathmandu)

Virtually every game was packed in this meaningless football tournament where foreign teams disguised as Senior National Teams (ONLY IN NEPAL!) participated. The final match between Nepal and Sri Lanka saw ticketless fans climb trees and scale to the rooftops to catch a glimpse of the action.

2008 AFC Presidents Cup Qualifiers (Kuala Lumpur)

Hundreds of Nepali fans, most of them laborers with little disposable income, showed up to watch Nepal Police Club’s three matches in a tournament that was not marketed at all. AFC staff at the tournament were in shock as they did not expect any fans to turn up as the matches were supposed to be a closed doors affair.

These examples beg the question – are Nepalis the best sports fans in the world? Just imagine how much fan support we would bring if our athletes and teams actually had a good shot at winning something! 

SAFF Championship 2011: ANFA needs to get real about player development

In preparing for the SAFF Championship ANFA checked all the correct boxes.

They started preparing for the tournament months in advance, they hired a competent foreign coach, they sent the National Team abroad for training, they arranged friendly matches and they enticed players with all sorts of bonuses and rewards.

Despite ANFA’s best efforts and some inspired performances from our players, Nepal was only able to win one match out of four and went out to Afghanistan in the semifinals of the regional competition. It’s now been 18 long years since Nepal has won a senior tournament of significance. Most times, we struggle to even get out of the group stages.

Furthermore, Nepal continues to fail to defeat teams that at least on paper have no business being competitive against us. The Maldives is a tiny island nation with a smaller population than Bhaktapur District. Afghanistan has been ravaged by decades of war. Pakistan is best known for sewing footballs, not kicking them. India is a country solely obsessed with cricket.

Nepal should not just be competitive against our South Asian neighbors, we should be dominating them!

Football is king in the Himalayan Republic. The media attention, fan support, sponsorship (per capita) and passion for the Beautiful Game inside our borders is unrivaled in the region, and even in the continent there are only a handful of countries that can match our enthusiasm.  

So what seems to be the issue? Why do we struggle to even just reach the finals of a South Asian tournament?

To answer this, I refer you to a comment made by Indian football legend Bhaichung Bhutia in a recent interview. When asked what facilities Indian National Team players need to be able to compete with the better Asian sides, Bhaichung said that Indian players did not require better facilities, but that India required better players. He confessed that even his own standard was not good enough to compete with the likes of a Japan and South Korea or even a Qatar and Bahrain.

Nepal is in the exact same boat. To consistently win in SAFF and catch-up to mid level Asian football nations such as Malaysia and Lebanon we simply need to produce better players. (And for our cricket brothers at CAN, it’s the exact same scenario).

Will these boys become better players than what we've currently got?

Here is one way to look at it. Pretty much every Indian and Maldives National Team member would be able to play for Nepal’s best clubs, such as MMC or Nepal Police Club, yet according to a well respected South Asian football player agent, there are only two or three Nepali players good enough to play for even a lower level first division Indian or Maldives side.

Unfortunately, right now ANFA, our clubs, and football backers have no pragmatic plan to produce higher quality players. The words “football development” rings completely hollow to clubs, while sponsors/backers are still writing blank checks and have shown little vigilance in how their sponsorship rupees are spent.

As for ANFA, they basically have two failing strategies. One is the ANFA Academy and the second is cash rewards. Neither really is much of a strategy at all.

Selecting 40 boys at the age of 12 and expecting them to transform into world class players is naïve. There are too many variables that factor into player development and that is why you need a system where tens of thousands of kids are receiving high quality training and not just 40. Nirajan Malla is the classic case. At an early age he was billed as Nepal’s next great striker. He went to Japan for a short training stint with Asian giants Urawa Reds. It is rumored that Qatar’s Aspire Academy was also interested in signing him. As he grew older Nirajan was not able to live up to the hype and as we all know he was not even able to break into Nepal’s SAFF Championship side, a team that was weakest at the attacking positions.    

As for cash rewards, simply put you can’t turn lead into gold, no matter how much money or mutton you have on offer. Players are not suddenly going to be able to shoot better or have greater tactical awareness because a few notes are being waved in front of their faces the night before a match. If it was that easy, oil rich countries like Qatar and Brunei would be winning the FIFA World Cup every time.

ANFA needs to quit with the gimmicks and get real about player development. Churn out thousands of youth coaches that can mold future stars, create a proper scouting network that identifies promising talents, mandate clubs to adopt youth academies, require every tournament to run a parallel junior competition, foster a professional football environment by implementing a club licensing system and have a zero tolerance policy on match fixing. Only after such strategies are implemented can we realistically expect top caliber players – ones capable of competing against the best in Asia - to be born.

One of the most repeated phrases on Internet forums after Nepal’s loss to Afghanistan was “Bad Luck”.  We need to get to a point where our players are just so damn talented that neither “Good Luck” nor “Bad Luck” makes any difference in the final outcome. We’ll win no matter what!

SAFF Championship: The pride is back

When you play poorly and lose you get a sick feeling. When you lose but play well, your heart sinks. Today most Nepalis are suffering from football heartache and not headache.

The 2011 SAFF Championship in New Delhi was a big step in the right direction for Nepal’s National Team.

Before the tournament many reputed South Asian football pundits were lumping Nepal in the same category as perennial minnows Sri Lanka and Bhutan opposed to the masters Maldives and India. Who could argue with them?

Nepal’s only recent victory against a senior national team came against Bhutan and East Timor the punching bags of Asian football. Nepal was humiliated 9-0 by Jordan in the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers and lost the majority of its friendly matches in their South East Asian tour including 4-0 to perennial strugglers the Philippines. Was there really any reason to be optimistic?

However something remarkable happened in New Delhi. The team not only came to play, but they turned on the style. With quick, short-passing, attacking football Nepal overran all three of its opponents in the group stage and comfortably qualified for the semifinals of the tournament. In the knockout round Nepal unfortunately missed chance after chance in the first half and ultimately went down to a resilient Afghanistan side. You win some, you lose some.

What was most impressive about Nepal’s performances was the intensity and focus they showed - two traits that have often gone missing for the National Team. Nepali players in the recent past have a history of football load shedding, basically the lights going out at inopportune times, thus making careless mistakes, giving up silly goals and then sulking and conceding even more goals!

The Gorkhali spirit and bravado that was the hallmark of Nepali teams in the 1980’s has also long been absent. These days our players easily get nervous during matches and that extra bit of fight to win the ball, make a tackle, stand-up to the opponent has been a rarity.

This time however things were different. The Gorkhali spirit was back! The team was composed, they were determined, they had grit and they played some very attractive football. All this was perfectly encapsulated in the 96^th minute wonder strike by Sagar Thapa – perhaps the most dramatic goal in Nepali football history.

Graham Robert and his coaching staff deserve much credit for developing the team and getting the tactics right. ANFA, sponsors and well-wishers also did their part by leaving no stone unturned in preparing this team for the tournament. The SAFF Championship was truly a great team effort – players, coaches, officials, sponsors and not to forget - media and fans!

There have been very few times recently where we could genuinely be proud to be Nepali football fans. The last week was certainly one of those occasions.

We felt proud to see the resolve of our players.

We felt proud to witness the positive approach of our coaches.

We felt proud to hear foreign teams and commentators call us the best side in the tournament.

We felt proud to know that our fans totally kick-ass - in the stadium, online and at home.

It just felt great to be a proud Nepali football supporter once again.

SAFF Championship 2011

Semifinal: Nepal vs. Afghanistan (December 9)

Nepal had the possession, but Afghanistan had the goal and earned a 1-0 victory in extra time. Nepal had plenty of chances to score, but the strikers were blunt as was the case this entire tournament.

I'll have lots of articles on the SAFF Championship in the coming days. Stay tuned!


 Nepal vs. Pakistan (December 6)

With their quick, short passing game, for the third consecutive match Nepal were the better side. They took the lead on an inspired side volley by Bharat Khawas in a goalmouth scrap after a Nepal cornerkick. Pakistan equalized at the start of the 2nd half on a penalty kick, but hardly troubled Nepal thereafter. Nepal's attack itself was fairly blunt in the second period save a Sandeep Rai freekick that bounced-off the post.

The match ended in a 1-1 draw and its on to the semifinals for Nepal.

For all its enterprise Nepal seriously has lacked any sort of cutting edge in their attack throughout the SAFF Championship. Nepal's forwards neither have the virtuoso nor the strength and power to get past the oppositions' last line. It's no surprise therefore that all three of Nepal's goals in the tournament have come from set pieces.

Off the pitch, Nepal's hardcore football fanbase kicked-butt as usual. One again thousands were at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium creating a ruckus.


Nepal vs. Bangladesh (December 4)

Nepal continues to impress at the SAFF Championship. Though it took 90 minutes to find the winning goal versus Bangladesh, on an inspirational free kick by Captain Sagar Thapa, for the second game in a row they dominated the opposition.

Nepal has been the most impressive team at the SAFF Championship thus far. With India in disarray, could this be the year?


Nepal vs. Maldives (December 2)

The Boys came to play! Nepal was easily the better side in its first match against the Maldives. From the opening whistle the Maldives were on the back foot, unable to match Nepal’s fitness and intensity. With crisp one touch passing, Nepal attacked in waves. Unfortunately, poor crossing and a lack of shooting power in the final third saw the match end in just a 1-1 draw.

Most impressive was Nepal’s midfield which overwhelmed Maldives and hardly let them within 35 yards of Nepal’s goal. Constant pressure saw Maldives quite flustered and rarely were they able to string together more than 3 or 4 passes. Bharat Khawas in midfield and Robin Shrestha on the wing were a constant threat and could stake claim to the Man of the Match award.

Historically, in pressure situations Nepali players seem to get very tight and nervous and tend to wilt during crunch time. Not today. The players looked very confident from the start and despite going a goal down on a blinder of a shot at the end of the 1^st half, stayed composed and were able to level the game in the early part of the 2^nd period and kept attacking until the very end. Looks like the ANFA's motivation classes are paying off.

Cash rewards 2.0

I received quite a few emails about my post on Cash Rewards. I quickly wrote the piece immediately upon reading about ANFA’s announcement that they will award Rs.10,000 Rupees a month to players. Reflecting back on my original post I readily acknowledge that I did not articulate myself very well. So let me try to be more clear.

ANFA and Nepali sports associations in general have a long tradition of offering big cash rewards to players before high profile events such as the South Asian Games, Asian Games, SAFF Cup, etc. This is actually not unique and something that almost every sports association in the world does.

There is a big difference however on the reasoning behind the cash rewards. The more sophisticated sports associations across the globe offer cash rewards as a bonus to players for achieving an objective. In Nepal the cash rewards are basically a sports associations’ STRATEGY to win medals and trophies. That is to say that our sports associations actually believe that offering money will increase the chances of winning. 

One way to look at is that we use cash rewards as a carrot while most countries offer it as a dessert. Our way of thinking is flawed. Here is why:

Cash rewards basically serve one purpose – to motivate a player. Cash rewards will not make a player technically more proficient, increase their strength, expand their Game IQ (i.e. “Football IQ”), or develop their tactical awareness. Those are things that can only be developed and improved with years of top class training, coaching and playing. Training habits and game play will not magically get better in a matter of 24 hours, no matter what the incentive.

Nepali players are not underperforming because they lack motivation, they are producing poor results because of inferior training, coaching and access to competitive matches (“playing”).

When Nepali players attend meaningful international events where they have a realistic shot of doing well, I believe that they are very motivated. Contrary to what cynics say, our athletes do take a lot of pride in representing their country. I really don’t believe they suddenly think – “Oh wow! I’ve been offered an extra 1 Lakh Rupees if I win a medal, so now I’m really going to step it up and give an extra 5%”.

On the other hand our sports associations instead of devising sound long term strategies to develop our athletes tend to resort to gimmicks such as these financial incentives and then quickly absolve themselves of complacency and incompetence when results don’t go their way. “Well we offered them 1 Lakh Rupees, what more do you want us to do?” would be a typical response from them.

The proof is pretty much in the pudding as Nepal has miserably failed to make a mark in international sports, so clearly these motivational cash rewards aren’t working.

A parallel I like to draw is that of a parent that desperately wants their child to get First Division in the SLC exam. Do you believe offering a cash reward to a kid one night before the SLC exam is going to make any difference on the results? Perhaps the parent should have enrolled their child at Budhanilkantha School and instilled a good work ethic and discipline many years back if they were truly serious about their child doing well on the SLC exam.

This is not to say that these cash rewards might not have an impact on future athletes. Maybe there is a kid in Jhapa who is now inspired to become a footballer on hearing about ANFA’s generous rewards. If that’s the case – wonderful! But let us not be naive either. ANFA’s announcement has nothing to do with inspiring future footballers. It is clearly about winning the 2011 SAFF Cup, a prize that Ganesh Thapa desperately covets after failing to win a single meaningful tournament in his 15 years as ANFA President.

Nonetheless, whatever the motivation may be, I applaud ANFA for leaving no stone unturned in the last half-year to try and win this edition of the SAFF Cup. The cash rewards on offer will certainly be a great bonus for the players if they are able to fulfill the aspirations of Nepali football fans.

Cash rewards

It's wonderful that ANFA is offering Rs. 10,000 per month for life to National Team players if they win the SAFF Cup. It's a great potential bonus for the players and their families, but at the end of the day that is all it is - a bonus.

Anyone who thinks money will drive our players to play harder or better is fooling themselves, because guess what? Our players will give it their best no matter what!!!

An athletes performance  is the output of all the training and coaching (input) they received in their life. If Nepal wins the SAFF Cup it will be because our players received better training and coaching from the beginning of their careers than our opponents. If we fare poorly it will be because the training and coaching wasn't good enough. End of story.

See follow-up article CashRewards 2.0

Social Welfare Sports Centre

When I am in Nepal I try my best to visit as many grassroots sports programs across the country as possible. The only problem is that there are really not that many around. An NGO-Foreign Aid-Centralized Government culture has unfortunately created an environment where people have become used to putting their hands out opposed to getting their hands dirty. Thus one can basically count on two hands the organized grassroots sports programs that exist in the country.

Luckily, through the power of Facebook, I was able to connect with the team running a grassroots football program in the Nayabazaar Dhara neighborhood of Kathmandu and paid them a visit on my most recent trip to Nepal.

On reaching the open sandlot where the unconventionally named club – Social Welfare Sports Centre (SWSC) conducts training, I was pleasantly surprised to see full blown youth football training for multiple age groups – and no it was not the “A FIFA Master/ former AFC official is coming to pay us a visit, so let’s quickly put something together to impress him” variety either. This was a legit grassroots program.

SWSC was established by seven teenage friends in 1999 as a way to provide youths in and around Nayabazaar Dhara a diversion to the distractions of the streets. They hoped to achieve this by providing football training which would help keep kids away from mischief.

Eleven years on SWSC is as active as ever: conducting under-12 and under-16 training for neighborhood kids, organizing small sided football tournaments and also through community outreach programs like providing safe drinking water, immunization drives, and assisting local children with school tuition and in garnering scholarships.

SWSC has also made a national impact in football. Several top division football players including Rupesh KC (HSC), Nabin Maharjan (MMC), and Nirajan Shrestha (UYC) are alumni of the club’s youth training setup. Their senior team recently was promoted to the Martyrs League ‘C’ division and just missed out on qualifying for the ‘B’ division, though they will still participate in the national ‘C’ division tournament as a result of their strong showing in the league.

Irrespective of the on-field successes, SWSC officials assert that the club’s greatest accomplishment has been providing an alternative to the drug and gang culture which many youths in Kathmandu gravitate to as a result of disillusionment or boredom. One club representative commented that in Nayabazaar Dhara one can basically separate the disciplined boys from the wayward ones based on who attends football training.

A grassroots sports program that not only has survived, but thrives after nearly a dozen years is a rarity in Nepal. SWSC’s success lies in the fact that along with football training, they also groom their trainees to take on leadership roles in the club. Thus all of the current SWSC Executive Board members, now in their late teens or twenties, were one time football trainees at the club.

SWSC has also been able to muster considerable goodwill from the local community. As an example a local sporting goods manufacturer Wild Sports has sponsored all the club’s match and training kits. On the other hand, despite their achievements, SWSC receives virtually no support from national institutions, including ANFA. Unlike many clubs and projects, SWSC has little political clout and no famous personality in their ranks thus assisting such a club is generally considered a waste of resources for politically driven organizations. Why help a club that offers no votes or short-term financial leverage?

Fortunately, with the explosion of Nepali sports blogs, websites and Facebook pages, SWSC’s story is no longer hidden. They have recently garnered prominent attention on GoalNepal and have made a name for themselves amongst Nepali football fans on Facebook. With their new found exposure, formidable performances in the Martyrs League and well developed club structures, one can expect to hear much more from SWSC in the near future.

T-Shirts

A few years back ANFA Technical Director Bhim Thapa and I organized a youth football coaching course for Biratnagar Sports Club (BSC). Only a handful of the dozens of club officials we invited for the Opening Ceremony bothered to show-up. We gave them all a Biratnagar Sports Club t-shirt as a souvenir gift.

A couple of days later, we were surprised to see how packed the Closing Ceremony was - especially as it was supposed to be a low key affair and we had only formally invited a few District FA officials. It turns out everyone was there in hopes of getting a free BSC t-shirt! Unfortunately for them we had already given away our extra t-shirts to the local staff (security guards, janitors, etc.) who worked at the school where we conducted the coaching program.

Refusing to take no for an answer, one club official pleaded with me in very broken English for a t-shirt. I guess he thought I would be more inclined to give him something if he spoke to me in my first language. Another official even asked if he could have the BSC shirt I was wearing! Perhaps if I had a six pack like John Abraham I might have considered taking off the shirt and literally flexing my muscles, but unfortunately I'm probably in worse shape than Govinda.

The irony of it all? The club officials, especially from the far off villages, probably spent altogether around 500 Rupees to attend the Closing Ceremony. The BSC t-shirts cost 200 Rupees a piece!

Teams versus Clubs

Assembling a group of 15-20 very talented players and winning trophies makes you a great team. Having a proper club office, staff, academy, training facility (or regular access to one), merchandising, supporters club and community outreach makes you a great club.

We have lots of football teams in Nepal but very few clubs. The challenge for our football officials is to transform their teams into proper clubs.

I met many team/club officials during my most recent visit to Nepal and the one question I kept asking them was if FIFA President Sepp Blatter were to come to Nepal and visit your club, what would you show him? Save Bansbari, Himalayan Sherpa and a few others, most teams would have little to present other than a dusty office and a few rusty trophies.

Teach a man to fish

I had been very hands-on in two different sports projects in Nepal. There are several other projects where I am not actively involved, but offer advice and consulting.

As it turns out, the projects that I provide only advice to are progressing far better than the ones I was regularly involved in. The reason? The projects in which I was active in had come to rely on me like the Government of Nepal relies on foreign aid! I helped them find sponsors, secure equipment and market themselves. Unfortunately, instead of learning from me they became dependent on me, therefore nothing got done unless I was involved or I barked some orders.

On the other hand, the projects where I only provide consulting look at me as a knowledge resource and not as an NGO. The projects are eager to learn from me and work among themselves to implement some of the ideas I share with them. They know they will only get a blueprint and must be prepared to do all the heavy lifting.

The moral of my experience: Don’t give a man fish, teach him how to catch some.

Five ways to develop youth football

Understandably, Nepali football fans are very disappointed with the recent Under-16 results both in the SAFF and AFC U-16 tournaments. Rightly or wrongly ANFA officials have always led us to believe that “We Are the Best at Youth Level,” so the fact that we are failing to get results in the youth ranks is depressing.

It is important to keep things in perspective though. Look at the Maldives for example. Results wise they are miserable at the youth level but their clubs and Senior National Team are very formidable in regional competitions. That is why football development experts almost uniformly say youth competitions are about developing player and not the final score.

Perhaps what is disheartening to Nepali football fans is that we know Nepal is always playing for results and never development and we still lose. Therefore it is like a double negative – not only are we losing, but our players are not developing!

Read the full article at GoalNepal.com

Nepali players headed in the wrong direction

Jagjit Shrestha and Anil Gurung most recently went West to Germany and England respectively to try their luck in European football. Rohit Chand could join them if his paperwork ever gets sorted. With the help of the Nepali diaspora, and sometimes dodgy agents, footballers are increasingly finding new opportunities to play or at the very least go for trials at Western clubs. There is one slight issue however, the Western clubs we are talking about are not Manchester United or Bayern Munich or even Scunthorpe United or 1860 Munich for that matter. They are semi-pro and amateur clubs buried in the deep pyramid structures of European football.

Read the full article at GoalNepal.com

Away

I'm taking a break (need to concentrate on a project). Hope to be back blogging soon.

An apology

1994, the last time Nepal won a South Asian tournament

I apologize for believing in the potential of Nepali football and holding it to very high standards. I feel we are capable of a lot more than just beating the likes of Afghanistan and East Timor and one of our national team players going for trials with a 6th division English semi-pro club.

From now on I will do my best to temper my optimism and learn from our wise and pragmatic soccer officials about Nepal's limitations and insurmountable challenges in domestic and international football.