Sports
Kunwar opts out of presidential race
Mani Kunwar, the presidential candidate for Saturday’s central election of the All Nepal Football Association (Anfa), said on Friday he will not contest for the top post of country’s football governing body claiming it as illegitimate.Mani Kunwar, the presidential candidate for Saturday’s central election of the All Nepal Football Association (Anfa), said on Friday he will not contest for the top post of country’s football governing body claiming it as illegitimate.
The move from Kunwar comes a day after the Kathmandu District Court ruled against imposing an interim stay order to hold the election as demanded by his faction. Candidates and district officials close to the Anfa senior vice president Kunwar had filed a writ petition at the court on Wednesday demanding interim stay order against the May 5 election claiming that it was against the statute.
But the court paved way for the poll saying “it does not seem appropriate to issue an interim order”. The election was initially scheduled for March 28 but was put on hold after representatives from Makwanpur and Bhaktapur FAs filed writ petition claiming they were deprived of their rights to participate in the election.
But after both district FAs pulled out their case from the Patan High Court, the Anfa election committee on April 25 rescheduled the poll for May 5 (Saturday). Although the candidacy for all the posts in the executive committee were filed, Kunwar-faction had been saying that the election needed to be held 60 days after the prior notice.
“This is my sole decision to not contest the election because we know that it is held against the statute of Anfa. Some of our friends will participate in the election to respect the court’s decision while some others will not,” said Kunwar whose pull out makes no difference to the election process as it came too late to make it an official withdrawal. Kunwar didn’t disclose the number of candidates from his faction to participate in the election.
Former Anfa vice-president Karma Tsering Sherpa, who led a revolt against disgraced ex-president Ganesh Thapa, is fighting for the post of president leading a strong-looking opposition to Kunwar faction. Kunwar is a brother-in-law to Thapa. Kunwar’s latest decision is all but certain to make Sherpa and his faction the outright winners of the election.
But Kunwar said they are now entering a new episode of war in Nepali football. “I wish them (Sherpa-faction) all the best if they are to do better for football. But the election will be held against the Anfa statute and we will fight this war until it resolves,” added Kunwar.
Anfa election was originally set for January 25 but has since been postponed four times on various pretexts in the last four months. Saturday’s election will elect 17-member committee including a president, four vice presidents and 12 members. Pema Sherpa was already elected as member unopposed under the women’s quota.
Ganesh Chand, who is fighting for the post of vice president along with Birat Jung Shahi, Sunil Rana and Mohammad Samiullah from Kunwar panel, also confirmed his withdrawal from the election. Pankaj Bikram Nembang, Krishna Thapa, Bir Bahadur Khadka and Upendra Man Singh are four vice-president hopefuls from Sherpa faction.
The elected committee will later appoint general secretary and treasurer. The general assembly of Anfa have 77 votes including one each from 45 district associations and one each from 14 ‘A’ division clubs. The ‘B’ and ‘C’ division clubs will have nine and five votes respectively while four committees—players, coaches, referee and women commission—will have one voting rights each.