The likes of Manang Marshyangdi Club, Police, Three Star and New Road Team are the ones who have been the major force in top-tier league for over a decade. On the contrary, Brigade Boys have always been fighting for their top flight survivals. When Manang clinched the Martyrs Memorial ‘A’ Division League last season, Brigade Boys finished 12th in the 14-team tournament.

So why are the junior teams of Manang, Three Star or Police struggling at the age-group football while the so-called minnows BBC are dominating it? One of the many reasons could be big clubs’ lack of interest in youth development programme like the U-18 football. The fact that teams like MMC and Three Star made less effort to strengthen their age-group squad speaks volumes of their lack of interest in it.

BBC pounced on the opportunity to clinch the silverware which they knew is a far cry for them at the senior level. They did all the homework to bolster their squad by signing 12 ANFA Academy graduates in the past two years. All Nepal Football Association normally releases its Academy players when they turn 16 years old.

The majority of ANFA boys in BBC lend greater strength to their team than their opponents. The ANFA boys will obviously be a class apart from the other self-taught footballers. Brigade Boys scored 27 goals and conceded just three in the Lalit Memorial U-18 Championship. They scored at the rate 4.5 goals per match in the successful defense of their title.

Three Star refuted the claims that they were not serious in forming a strong youth team. "It’s not true. We tried to form a competitive team but since some of our key players got injured just before the tournament, we could not fare well," said Three Star President Arun Man Joshi, whose youth team crashed out of the group stage. Joshi said his club was not interested in chasing ANFA Academy boys. They preferred to form their youth team through open selection instead.

Manang rued their poor performance in the Lalit Memorial football to the ill timing of the tournament. MMC president Chhiring Urgen Gurung said most of their club officials were busy in their community festival and reacted late to form their team. "When we got in action, it was already too late as most of the other teams had picked up good players," said Gurung. Gurung also said his club did not made any effort to sign ANFA Academy graduates but resorted to open selection and scouting to form the team.

One of the other reasons why BBC were so dominant in the Lalit Memorial U-18 tournament was the fact that eight players of the team had the experience of playing the top-tier league last season. To add to their already stronger squad, forward Rejin Subba—who played senior level football from Nepal Police Club—also joined Brigade Boys in the later part of group stage. BBC already had power-packed attacking strength in Roshan Rana Magar and Birjesh Chaudhary, who finished as the highest scorer of the tournament. Declared the best forward of the tournament, Chaudhary struck eight goals including the winner in the final against Police. Rana Magar netted six.

"While forming our team, we had nothing in mind but the title. We also prepared ourselves accordingly. I cannot say for sure how other teams took the tournament. May be some of the teams have taken the tournament just as a formality," said Brigade Boys Secretary Progresh Rai, who sees his youth team as future of the club.

"In fact, we included eight U-16 players in the senior league last season besides retaining half a dozen players who played in the same U-18 tournament last year. I believe that made us a formidable opponent this time too. The combination of players with top-tier league experience as well as those with the experience of winning the title last year made our job even easier this time," said Rai. Rai said the current age-group will form the core of the senior team in the coming season as they cannot match the coffer of the big teams to bolster their squads.

ANFA League Director Sanjeev Mishra said big teams negligence on age-group tournaments was largely due to lack of footballing culture. "The big clubs should have their own academies. But there is no such culture and most of clubs play age-group tournaments just for a formality by forming assembled teams. They even do not bother to find talented players," said Mishra. "But for smaller teams such tournaments become a prestige issues since they do not have a realistic chance of lifting silverware at the senior level," he said.