The All Nepal Football Association (Anfa) on Friday formed a probe committee to investigate over the reasons that deprived top-flight outfits Three Star Club from competing in the second round of the AFC Cup club championship playoffs. 

It was learnt on Thursday that Three Star were deprived of participating in the playoffs slated for January 24 to February 7 next year. The deprivation was caused by the utter negligence from the football governing body, who didn’t bother to correspond with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) despite its repeated reminder.

As it appeared in the case of Nepal, AFC corresponds with its member associations and not the clubs, even in terms of participation of clubs in international tournaments. Nepal (Three Star) were not in the list of the Member Associations when AFC allocated the slots and set December 13 as the date for the draw on Wednesday.

Mongolia’s Erchim FC will replace Three Star for the second round. Three Star had qualified for the second round of playoffs after finishing first in the Group ‘B’ Qualifiers in Mongolia at the expense of Erchim. The three-member probe committee comprising of vice-president Bir Bahadur Khadka, executive committee member Ramesh Rayamajhi and Development Director Sanjib Mishra will be investigating over the issue. The trio is tasked to submit the findings in 15 days.

The central committee meeting of Anfa also decided to provide Rs 300,000 to each member of the national team that claimed the AFC Solidarity Cup held in Malaysia on November 2-15. Meanwhile, Anfa vice-president Mani Kunwar was nominated as the senior vice-president with Sindhupalchowk District Football Association President Bir Bahadur Khadka nominated as vice-president to fill the vacant post.