The five-times champions open the month-long tournament with a match against Croatia in Sao Paulo on Thursday.

Football fans from Australia to Zimbabwe eagerly await the sound of first whistle of the biggest single sporting showpiece on earth.

Prabin Chapagain, a devout Brazil fan, is counting on Selecao and Barcelona starlet Neymar to deliver on his promises and fire Brazil their sixth World Cup.

“I can’t wait for the tournament to start,” says Chapagain, who has already invited several friends to watch the opening match at his place in Sinamangal.

But like many fellow Nepali football fans, he is troubled by recent negative reports implicating Nepal in the run-up to the World Cup.

“I know very little about the football politics but the corruption report will do no good for Nepali football,” he explains, referring to All Nepal Football Association (Anfa) President Ganesh Thapa’s reported connection to corruption scam surrounding the banned former Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President and Fifa executive member Mohammed bin Hammam.

On June 7, British newspaper The Sunday Times reported that Thapa had received £115,000 from two separate Kemco (Bin Hammam’s private company) accounts in March and August 2010.

It came about a year after another report from the Associated Press saying that Thapa had received $100,000 from the personal account of Bin Hammam as a personal loan.

The latest revelation blows the lead off harrowing tale of corruption that has gripped the world football, especially in Asia and Africa.

Thapa, who also weilds power as AFC vice-president, is considered a power broker in Asia.

According to The Sunday Times, the $400,000 Goal Project was awarded to Nepal and the other South Asian nations as part of the Bin Hammam scheme to buy loyalties.

Thapa, who rarely missed out on a goal-scoring chance in his heyday as a striker, has sharpened his skills further to gloss over such issues with domestic competitions that offer fat paychecks to the clubs and top footballers.

But for all his tall claims Nepal is yet to scale new heights in the international arena. In fact, Nepal’s last piece of international silverware—SAFF Games gold medal—came in 1993, two years before he first assumed the Anfa office.

As Sepp Blatter faces calls at the general convention in Brazil to step down as Fifa boss over corruption surrounding the Qatar’s successful but controversial World Cup bid, voices against Thapa’s excesses in Nepal are picking up a decibel. 

Anfa Vice-president Karma Chhiring Sherpa calls for Thapa’s immediate ouster to clean up the mess in Nepali football. The fresh scandal comes at a time when Sherpa and a few other senior Anfa office bearers are at loggerheads over the dictatorship and the autocratic rule of Thapa.

 “If such misdeeds are not immediately stopped, the Nepali football will continue to suffer and fall further behind,” said Sherpa.