The National Sports Council (NSC) on Thursday formed a five-member probe committee to investigate on the recent developments at the All Nepal Football Association (Anfa).

Nepali football has been on the spotlight of late for all the wrong reasons, the biggest of them all being Fifa’s 10-year suspension on Anfa head Ganesh Thapa from all national and international football activities. Former government Secretary Pratap Kumar Pathak leads the committee that includes former director of Office of the Auditor’s General Umesh Prasad Dhakal, Joint Secretary of Ministry for Youth and Sports (MoYS) Ram Bahadur Hamal, legal expert Prabal Sharma and NSC Sports Development Department chief Kul Bahadur Thapa.

The NSC press advisor Rohit Dahal said the committee has been tasked to investigate on Thapa’s Fifa suspension, nomination of Narendra Shrestha as Anfa senior vice-president, match-fixing scandal involving national footballers as well as the case in which Nepal were found to be fielding over-aged player during the AFC U-16 Championship Qualifiers in Kyrgyzstan.

The Adjudicatory Chamber of the Independent Ethics Committee of Fifa on November 16 banned Thapa on bribery and corruption charges. The NSC move comes a day after the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) said it is considering reopening the corruption case against the former national team striker.

National team skipper Sagar Thapa, his deputy Sandip Rai, goalkeeper Ritesh Thapa along with former footballers Anjan KC—also a former coach of Three Star Club—and Bikash Singh Chhetri were arrested and charged with match-fixing international games lately. The Special Court on November 10 granted bail to the five footballer who face subversion charges for their alleged role in fixing various international matches.