Bansbari Club, the second-tier outfits, on Tuesday one year title sponsorship deal with Spark Health Home Hospital ahead of the Martyrs Memorial ‘B’ Division League that kicks off from February 8.

As the title sponsor, the hospital will provide sports kits and hospital services in addition to Rs 800,000 in cash. Club president Prem Thapa and Director of Spark Rupesh Adhikari signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Tuesday. As per the deal, the club will be now be named as Spark Hospital Bansbari Club.  

The ‘B’ Division League features 12 teams divided into two pools. Top two teams from each pool will make into the Super League where they will play a round robin league. Top four teams will be based on points obtained in the Super League. The league will not have provision of relegation or promotion this season similar to the ones in the recently concluded top-tier league.

“We have already started preparation for the league. We have allocated around Rs 2 million to Rs 2.2 million to make the team more competitive,” said president Thapa. “As the league does not have provision of promotion or relegation we are also pondering to include some local players in our team,” added Thapa.

Spark director Adhikari said he was looking forward to the continued association will the club in the years to |come. “We chose ‘B’ Division outfits Bansbari due to its long history in football,” said Adhikari. “More realistically, we were also not in a position to afford to sponsor ‘A’ Division club as it require even greater budget.”

All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) president Karma Tsering Sherpa was delighted to see the lower division lure in such a big sponsor. “I am happy that a ‘B’ Division Club is taking a step towards professionalism,” he said adding that ANFA would support Bansbari in upgrading their ground during the 2019-2022 cycle.

ANFA President Sherpa said that the football governing body is currently focusing on five major issues:

infrastructure development, training, capacity building, good governance and providing systematic framework for the scattered tournaments across the country. “We are working on these aspects and in the long run we plan to construct at least one training centre at all the 45 districts affiliated with us,” said Sherpa.