Nepal is following the international trend by organising the franchise-based tournament as All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) on Tuesday announced a new Nepal Super League for the near future.

ANFA struck deal to hold city-based provincial tournament with Nepal Sports and Event Management (NSEM) led by renowned business person Nirvana Chaudhary in on Tuesday. The event, to be held from mid-April to mid-June, will have seven teams associated with corporate houses. In addition to that, the football governing body has also reached agreement with NSEM to hold 10-month school league to expand across 11 cities.

ANFA President Karma Tsering Sherpa and NSEM president Nirvana Chaudhary, also the managing director of Chaudhary Group, signed the MoU. As per the initial agreement, seven provincial level teams involving local corporate houses will be formed for the tournament. 

ANFA will look after the technical aspects of the game while NSEM will be responsible for preparation of teams and their management under partnership with corporate houses of respective provinces. ANFA will select the best 140 players of the current Martyrs Memorial ‘A’ Division League and distribute them 20 players each in seven teams. 

The tournament will be played in a single-round robin league and will have playoffs. The matches will be held at different provinces that have minimum infrastructures required for the game. 

According to ANFA president Sherpa, the technical details including tournament regulation and other aspect will be finalised in due course. The School League will be held across 11 cities for 10 months as per the academic calendar. “It is a challenging task and we have target to involve at least 300 schools in the first year. The matches will be played on holidays and weekends,” he said. 

“We have agreed to this in principle and need to work out in details of both the projects,” added Sherpa. “The tournaments are new beginning in playing vital role in football’s development. The franchise league is Nirvana’s concept more than of ANFA.” 

NSEM president Chaudhary said that the project was purely youth development oriented rather than for making profit.