All Nepal Football Association on Tuesday roped in Chaudhary Group as its sponsor for annual nationwide inter-school football tournament to begin next month in Satdobato, Lalitpur.

The tournament will be played across 52 districts including 48 districts affiliated with the football governing body in the initial stage. The second stage of the tournament will see provincial-level competition before the tournament enters final round in Kathmandu. Altogether 16 teams will be picked up for the finals. The event will have participation of at least 1,500 schools, informed ANFA.

ANFA President Karma Tsering Sherpa and CG Group Vice President GP Sah signed the memorandum of understanding. The agreement will be valid for five years with CG providing ANFA Rs 5.5 million annually. The amount will increase by Rs 500,000 each year reaching Rs 8 million at the end of the fifth year. The tournament will be branded as Kwiks Cup Inter School National Football Tournament. The tournament will be a replacement for the Coca-Cola Cup Inter School tournament.

CG Group Managing Director Nirvana Chaudhary thanked ANFA for providing the opportunity for tying up with football. Recalling that the Group was involved in promotion and development of cricket in the country for more than a decade, Chaudhary said: “Like cricket, we want to help football regain its lost glory. Our number one priority for next five years period will be football,” he said.

Terming the agreement as historic, ANFA President Sherpa said that the agreement had turned football governing body’s dream of youth football into reality. “It is essential to end malpractices in the tournament, most notably deceiving the real age and changing the identity to play the game,” said Sherpa adding that ANFA would start online registration system of the players in an attempt to discourage such ill practices. Only players upto 16 years of age will be eligible to compete in the tournament.

According to the ANFA President, the detail modality of the tournament will be finalised once the process of drafting tournament regulation will be finalised. The expected cost of the tournament is Rs 15 million. ANFA will get Rs 3 million for the government of Nepal while the football governing body bear rest of the costs from the development funds provided by FIFA and Asian Football Confederation.

The eventual champions will receive Rs 500,000 and the runners-up will get Rs 300,000. The third place finishers will walk away with Rs 200,000.