National Sports Council (NSC), the country’s apex sports body, on Monday instructed All Nepal Football Association (Anfa) to relieve Anfa President Ganesh Thapa of all duties with immediate effect.

It was the first move initiated by a government entity against Thapa since the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Independent Ethics Committee of Fifa on November 16 banned him for 10 years from all national and international football activities on bribery and corruption charges.

Citing Article 35(6) of Anfa that calls for “relieving a suspended person from all duties with immediate effect”, the council has asked the football’s national body to notify it of action against Thapa.

The NSC has also directed Anfa to clarify within three days the basis on which senior vice-president Narendra Shrestha was nominated as its acting president.

Anfa spokesperson and Chief Executive Indra Man Tuladhar acknowledged they had received the NSC letter.

“He [Thapa] has been suspended by default (after the Fifa rulings). I haven’t gone through the NSC letter yet and cannot make any comment at the moment,” he said.

The council has also asked for a copy of the Anfa executive committee’s minutes of meeting that suspended vice-presidents Karma Tsering Sherpa, Bijay Narayan Manandhar, Kishor Rai and member Pankaj  Bikram Nembang. On September 28, the Anfa panel suspended the four officials, who are at the loggerheads with Thapa, until the “next General Assembly”, alleging them of “failing to attend executive committee meetings” in

succession.