All Nepal Football Association (Anfa) on Monday postponed its election by three weeks drawing controversy within the football governing body of Nepal.

The Anfa executive committee meeting on Monday came up with the decision to hold its election on January 25 instead of previously announced January 7 date at its extra ordinary congress on October 9. “We made the move due to the time constraint as we need to follow the guidelines,” Anfa president Narendra Shrestha said. “It requires at least 40 days of prior notice to hold an election as per the Anfa statute. Before that, we are also obliged to hold District Football Association (DFA) elections.”

Shrestha also said that Anfa was obliged to form Election Committee and Election Appeal Committee before holding its election. These committees must get approval from DFAs which also requires seven days. Such committees also need further one week period before they start functioning.

But the decision drew a sharp criticism from its vice president Kishor Rai. “The decision was made with by ill intentions of the president and the senior vice president,” said Rai referring to Shrestha and senior vice president Mani Kunwar. “The date for election was already approved by the extra ordinary congress and there was no point in postponing it,” he said.

The decision also meant that elections of 45 District FAs will now be held within Nov 11-Dec 11. The extra-ordinary congress had earlier decided conduct the District FA elections by Nov 16. Meanwhile, the Election committee formed under the convenorship of advocate Suman KC consists of Laxman Thapa as the deputy chairman and Raju Bhai Manadhar as a member. Bijay Basnet  and Sagar KC are the alternative members.

Advocate Moti Ram Gautam was named chairman of the Appeal Committee while Bal Krishna Shrestha and Surya Narayan Adhikari are the members. Prakash Rawal and Ganga Sagar are the alternative members of the committee. Even the formation of the committees came under fire as Anfa vice president Rai alleged the establishment of proposing and endorsing the names unilaterally at the meeting.

“The leadership should have informed us in advance about the names to be included before presenting them in meeting. But the president and senior vice president pulled out the names from their pockets and endorsed them forcefully,” said Rai.

The Congress also increased voting rights to ‘B’ and ‘C’ division clubs. The second-tier clubs will have nine votes and third-tier will have five as compared to five and three in the existing statute. Anfa will have a total of 77 voters in the election—one each from 45 district associations and 14 ‘A’ division clubs. The ‘B’ and ‘C’ division clubs will have nine and five votes besides one each from women, referee, coach and player’s associations.

The meeting also decided to request Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to let Three Star Club represent Nepal in the next edition of AFC Club Championship. Three Star were proposed for the tournament as the last champions of league. Anfa has been unable to organise the top-tier league for the last three years.