Nepal has won an official Asian Football Confederation (AFC) competition once. This was in 2016. The competition is the AFC Solidarity Cup. The captain of the Nepali team that won the title of this competition was Biraj Maharjan. He is also one of the best players that Nepali football has had. Is he the only one? It can be said that his entire Maharjan family is dedicated to Nepali football.

This same Biraj said at a protest rally organized by the Nepal Football Players Association on Thursday, ‘I never thought such a day would come.’ He himself was active in the protest organized in front of the ANFA complex in Satdobato. Again, the players’ demands were not great. That was all, the Martyrs’ Memorial League ‘A’ division had to be formed. That is why Biraj said, such a day would never come. 

The key officials of the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) were outside the capital, spending lakhs to distribute a few balls. Therefore, not only Biraj, but also Rohit Chand, who has recently played hundreds of games for Nepal, Anjan Bista, who has jointly scored the most goals for Nepal, 13, and Bishal Shrestha, the most successful goalkeeper in domestic football, had no official to listen to the voices. 

Thank goodness. ANFA spokesperson Suresh Shah made some attempts to handle the situation. But where would the players stop? It was a situation where if they didn’t speak up now, they would never speak up in front of the Nepali football players. In this situation, the president of the players' association, Vikram Lama, has given the ANFA leadership a week to announce the organization of the 'A' Division League with a complete program. If this ultimatum is not met, in the players' own language, anything can happen. 

The players' association had already announced the day before that it would hold a protest program at the ANFA Complex in Satdobato. Coincidentally or knowingly, neither ANFA president Pankaj Bikram Nembang nor general secretary Kiran Rai were there at that time. Both were outside Kathmandu. The players had gathered since 11 am for the protest, but they stopped at the main gate. 

Even though they demanded to go to the ANFA Complex premises and present their views, ANFA did not allow them. After spending more than an hour and not being able to enter, the players demonstrated outside. In the meantime, President Lama condemned the behavior of ANFA and said that they would continue their strong protest. 'Our demand is that there should be football activities, that the injustices in Nepali football should be removed,' he said.

The players chanted slogans like ‘ANFA is still having fun, but the players are suffering’, ‘Empty on the field, our obligation on the road’, ‘ANFA’s hope, players’ hunger’ and ‘ANFA should not be deceived, don’t kill the players alive’. Chairman Lama added, ‘Our struggle will be even tougher in the coming days. This is just the beginning. The players’ demands must be addressed.’ Meanwhile, goalkeeper Vikash Kuthu was handling the entire situation properly. 

ANFA has not been able to organize the ‘A’ Division league for more than two and a half years and in the process, many football players have become unemployed. Some of them have gone abroad. That was the concern of the players. The last general meeting of ANFA had decided to organize the ‘A’ Division by setting aside a date and budget. But ANFA is making every possible excuse not to organize the league. 

Furthermore, at a program held at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, there was a discussion on how to organize the ‘A’ Division. However, General Secretary Rai said that ANFA could not organize the 'A' Division and announced that a national league would be organized in its place. After this, there was extreme disappointment among the players. The players have clearly rejected the organization of the national league.