Sports
Three Star set for Rs 15m compensation
Three Star Club is set to get Rs 15 million in compensation from All Nepal Football Association (Anfa) for a fiasco that deprived the Lalitpur-based football club from participating in the AFC Cup playoffs.Three Star Club is set to get Rs 15 million in compensation from All Nepal Football Association (Anfa) for a fiasco that deprived the Lalitpur-based football club from participating in the AFC Cup playoffs.
“We have reached an agreement to end our boycott and will return to football,” said Three Star General Secretary Sanjeeb Shilpakar on Wednesday after meeting with Anfa office-bearers in the presence of National Sports Council Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista. “Anfa agreed to pay Rs 15 million in compensation and assured us to fix at least two to three international club championship events in near future.”
Three Star were remarkably deprived of their rights to take part in the playoff round of the AFC Cup in January-February this year thanks to the utter negligence of the football governing body of Nepal. Despite repeated calls from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to register the team for the event, Anfa failed to do it even after granting an extension in November last year. AFC only corresponds to its member association and not the club concerned in such cases. Three Star had earned their way to the playoff after finishing top of their group in the Qualifiers in Mongolia last year.
Ever since, the club has been boycotting all football activities demanding Rs 60 million in compensation. Three Star said they had already invested millions of rupees while competing in the qualifiers as well as during their preparations for the playoffs. Anfa chief executive and spokesperson Indraman Tuladhar confirmed the report saying that they will disclose the terms of compensation after fixing legal procedures. Tuladhar along with Anfa General Secretary Dhirendra Pradhan and legal advisor Legal KC attended the three-party meeting.
Tuladhar, who declined to disclose the exact compensation amount, said Three Star will only get the compensation after approval from executive committee meeting. “We will work on legal procedure which has already started,” said Tuladhar. The Anfa CEO said that they will manage the “agreed amount” from their savings, tickets sales and sponsors.
“We reached agreement with a minimum compensation as we don’t want football to suffer. The league football has been in limbo and the Anfa had not hosted single major tournament for men. Hopefully we will play in the upcoming league,” said Shilpakar, who represented Three Star in the meeting along with Acting President Arun Man Joshi, Vice President Nirmal Ratna Shakya and legal advisor Mangal Maharjan.
Shilpakar said Anfa will disperse the compensation amount in two instalments. “They (Anfa) have agreed to release first instalment immediately after completing a legal formalities, which they said will take around two-three weeks. The second instalment will be released before their annual general assembly in October.”