The All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) and Chinese Football Association (CFA) on Thursday joined hands in a strategic partnership for mutual benefit of the sport in the two Asian countries.

The football governing bodies of the two neighbouring countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for four years in Kathmandu on Thursday. The MoU, however, does not have concrete issue and plans in detail. ANFA President Karma Tsering Sherpa and CFA acting President and Vice Sports Minister Du Zhaocai inked the deal. According to Sherpa, the two sides have agreed for exchange programmes for players, football infrastructure development in Nepal and technical support at the policy level.

“But we need to sit together again and workout in detail regarding the areas of partnership,” said Sherpa. “Our men’s and women’s football teams will visit China under the exchange program and they have also responded positively in infrastructure development of Nepali football,” added Sherpa who however failed to outline the details of the partnership.

Sherpa also said that the CFA had responded positively to send their state level and lower division teams to participate in various knock out tournaments in Nepal. Zhaocai described the MoU as the beginning of strategic partnership.

“The agreement will be a base for future in creating relations between national teams, youth players and women’s football,” he said. “Nepal is China’s strategic partner of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the MoU is also part of football’s BRI. Nepal and China have a long friendly relations and I am hopeful that the relation between CFA and ANFA will be as smooth as the two countries.”