The long-stalled Martyrs Memorial ‘A’ Division League football tournament is set for November 30 kick off.

The All Nepal Football Association (Anfa) executive committee meeting which resumed on Wednesday decided to hold the league that it was unable to organise for the last four years owing to various reasons. The 12-team ‘A’ Division League will be conducted as per the AFC Club licensing system for the first time in the country. To have a club licensing system within country, the football clubs would need to have home grounds, practice pitches—which can be shared—and ‘A’ license holder coach.

Wednesday’s meeting was resumption of its July 27 meet that was postponed indefinitely following dispute over disagreement within the Anfa board over the compensation for ‘A’ division outfits Three Star Club. The meeting also decided to pay compensation of Rs 15 million to Three Star Club, as it was agreed earlier, for preventing the club from competing in the AFC Cup playoffs despite earning qualification. However, the compensation matter need to be approved by the Anfa’s extraordinary congress scheduled for October 9.

Some members on July 27 had demanded that the culprit of Three Star case be punished only to see resentment from few other members and postponement of the meeting. Earlier football governing body had formed an investigation committee to look into the matter. The committee headed by Anfa Vice President Bir Bahadur Khadka had pointed out General Secretary Dhirendra Pradhan and Anfa officials Gokul Thapa and Basanta Rijal as the culprits.   

According to Anfa Chief Executive and spokesperson Indra Man Tuladhar, a committee headed by its senior Vice President Mani Kunwar has been formed for easing the payment method of compensation. Anfa members Ganesh Bahadur Chand and Dinesh Byanjankar are other members of the committee. The committee has been tasked to manage resources to pay the compensation fulfilling legal requirements and submit a report to Anfa President Narendra Shrestha within next 10 days.

The report will be then discussed at the next executive committee before tabling it at the extraordinary congress for approval. The committee has also been given responsibility to study report submitted by Khadka and suggest the punishment for culprits. “The committee will decide on payment method as well—number of instalment, payment mode and others,” said Tuladhar.

Three Star were deprived from the AFC Cup Playoff slated for January-February this year, thanks to Anfa negligence. Despite repeated correspondence from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to register the team for the event, Anfa failed to do so even after they were granted a deadline extension in November last year. AFC only corresponds to its member associations and not the clubs concerned in such cases.

Three Star had earned their way to the playoff after finishing top of their group in the Qualifiers in Mongolia last year. Ever since, the club has been boycotting all football activities. But later they reached agreement with Anfa to play football after the latter promised them of a Rs 15 million-compensation.

The meeting also decided to seek approval for extraordinary congress on October 9 and election on January 7 next year. According to Anfa, the meeting also discussed about AFC U-16 Championship Qualifiers (Group D) to be held in Nepal from September 20-24. Nepal’s AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers campaign and its expenses, Saff U-18 Championship and futsal were other matters discussed in the meeting.