Former Nepali international Kumar Thapa was appointed the head coach of the women's national team for a second tenure on Friday.

According to All Nepal Football Association (ANFA), Thapa has been handed the responsibility for the sixth edition of the SAFF Women's Championship scheduled to take place from September 6 to 19. Bindra Dewan has been named team manager.

Thapa, the coach of the 'A' division outfit Nepal APF Club, was earlier assigned the same responsibility during the 2016 edition of the SAFF Championship. He will succeed Australian coach Gary Philipps, also the former technical director, who quit the job in December last year. Since then, the post of women's head coach has remained vacant though Chetan Ghimire was assigned caretaker coach for a short period.

Under Thapa, the women's team failed to reach the final of the SAFF for the first time. Leaving aside the fourth edition, the women's team have entered the finals of all five editions so far. But they have never won the championship and lost the final to arch rivals India on all five occasions.

"It is like a lifeline for me," said Thapa, who holds the AFC 'A' coaching licence as well as UEFA Executive MIP (Masters' for International Players) certificate. He is the only person in Nepal to hold the MIP certificate.

"Though ANFA have told me verbally about the appointment, I am yet to get an official appointment letter. I have told them I would choose other technical staff as per my requirement," said Thapa, adding that he would have two assistant coaches—one male and female each—and a goalkeeping coach.

"I hope to begin training from Monday after finalising other technical staff," said Thapa, adding that there would be 40-50 players in the preliminary camp including all members of the squad that played in the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers in September last year. "We will also call Non-residential Nepali players for training four weeks prior to the tournament, if there are any," he added.

The football governing body has also formed an 18-member tournament organising committee under the coordination of senior vice president Bir Bahadur Khadka for the Championship. Executive member Rabindra Chand has been named venue manager, Vijay Ghale as local general coordinator and Dinesh Byanjankar as security chief. Sanjeeb Silpakar is the coordinator of the committee for marketing, broadcasting and digital rights of the regional competition.