The All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) election has been postponed for the third time. As per the schedule, the election was scheduled to be held in Jhapa on Friday (Chait 13). However, ANFA issued a sudden notice on Thursday evening and announced that it had postponed the election.

ANFA had decided to go ahead with the election program, ignoring the government's instructions. The National Sports Council (NSC), the supreme body of Nepali sports, had repeatedly asked to postpone it due to the lack of level-level elections. However, after ANFA, led by Pankaj Bikram Nembang, decided to go ahead with the election, the supreme body of Nepali football took the drastic step of suspending it for 3 months.

NSC did not accept the attempt to go directly to the central election without holding district and provincial elections. When NSC repeatedly wrote to ANFA about this, ANFA officials who were opposing the election said that this result came when ANFA tried to forcefully hold elections by delaying them.

According to ANFA's statute, there is a provision that one cannot hold more than two terms in a position. But since there was no level-level election, those who had served more than two terms as district presidents were also participating in this 'early election'. This was not accepted by the NSC and a group of ANFA.

On Thursday afternoon, outgoing ANFA president Karma Tshering Sherpa had urged club representatives not to participate in the election and be tarnished by history by participating in it. After the NSC suspended ANFA, clubs of the 'A', 'B' and 'C' divisions of the Martyrs' Memorial League, district associations and stakeholders had gathered at a press conference to make their views known regarding the general assembly and election. They had said that they would not participate in the election scheduled to be held in Jhapa.

ANFA president candidate Dirgha Bahadur KC (Kumar), senior vice-president candidate Sundar Narsingh Joshi, and four vice-president candidates Ganesh Chand, Uttam Raj Bhandari, Biswas Bikram Shah and Vijay Ghale had said that there was no point in holding the election when ANFA was already suspended by the NSC. Another candidate for vice-president, Pema Dolma Lama, also announced her withdrawal of candidacy through a statement.

‘Subordinate elections are a root of good governance, the current ANFA committee has abandoned it. Since there are no elections in 22-23 districts, representatives from those districts are participating for more than two terms, and those district football associations have not even held a general meeting,’ Karma Tshering, who is the president of the Himalayan Sherpa Club, expressed his anger. ‘It is easy to understand the situation football has reached now. The clubs themselves do not know when their matches will be held, and how can the audience know and watch their team’s game.’

Presidential candidate KC alleged that the Nembang-led ANFA has been doing wrong since its first meeting. ‘The ANFA leadership did not listen to my request to appoint subject matter experts to key positions like general secretary and treasurer in the first meeting of ANFA, the mistake started from there,’ said KC, who is the current vice-president of ANFA, ‘That is why Nepali football is in a disaster now. The leadership of ANFA is so weak that we do not know where the election will be held in Jhapa even a day before the election.’

KC alleged that he did not receive information from the ANFA election committee even when he asked for information about where the election will be held. Many who decided not to participate in the election suspected that they were trying to vote across the border of Jhapa. Former president of the Jhapa District Football Association, Jal Kumar Gurung, said, ‘My home is Birtamod, the so-called ANFA election is taking place near my house, they are holding the election by deception, they have not informed us where it will be held and what will happen.’

Former captain of the Nepali national football team, Upendraman Singh, described the current situation as a black day for Nepali football. Stating that the interests of a limited number of people have led to the suspension of the chaotic ANFA, he said that the players, coaches and referees have been hurt the most.

‘I have spent 35 years in Nepali football, but it has never been as chaotic as it is now, everything is in confusion, Nepali football has fallen into a disaster due to the arrogance of the majority,’ said Singh, who is also the president of Madhyapur Youth Association, ‘That is why the step taken by the NAF is compelling, it is to save Nepali football, it cannot be called political interference. This is the step taken by the NAF after the ANFA election was not held according to the Sports Act.’

FIFA and AFC also said to move forward according to the country’s laws, but Singh alleged that some people misled FIFA and AFC by giving wrong information. He argued that the current ANFA committee has completely failed as it has not been able to hold a single meeting in a smooth manner. He alleged that the ANFA has completely ignored the clubs that are playing the league by spending crores of rupees. He said, "Elections are not the only solution, we need to find a way out of this confusing situation through a table meeting."