National Youth Federation Nepal (NYFN) plans to hold the KP Oli Cup National Football Championships in the capital from February 23 to March 1.

NYFN, the youth wing of CPN-UML, said that the tournament will feature eight teams in a knockout format. “Among them seven will be ‘A’ division teams and one will be the host NYFN team,” said Kshitij Thebe, the tournament coordinator.

The matches of the tournament will be played at three different venues – Chyasal, ANFA Complex and Dasharath Stadium. The opening match will be played at the Chyasal and final at the Dasharath Stadium in an event organised with the slogan of ‘healthy youth, healthy society.’ The registration for the tournament is open until January 31.

According to Thebe, they were organising the tournament to honour the founder president of the organisation who is also the president of CPN-UML and a former Prime Minister.

NYFA president Kiran Paudel said that the tournament was organised to benefit the sports sector of the country.

“A country cannot excel in sports until the political parties and leadership prioritises it. We have a trend of honouring leaders and social influencers only after their death and we want to break such a trend,” said Paudel adding that they would find sponsorships and raise funds to conduct the event.

“The aim of organising the tournament is to contribute to the promotion of professional football in the country and contribute in an all-round development of players,” said Paudel.

The tournament offers a purse of Rs 1 million to the winners and Rs 500,000 to the runners- up along with trophies and certificates. The winners of each match will get cash incentives of Rs25,000. The best player will bag a purse of Rs 100,000 while the best goalkeeper and highest scorer will walk away with Rs 50,000 each. The emerging player will also get Rs 50,000.