All preparations have been completed for the Martyr’s Memorial B Division League-2025, the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) informed Friday. Nepal’s second-highest division of men’s club football begins on March 9 between 14 teams.

The B Division League, which should be organised annually, is returning after a gap of three years. Church Boys United had won the previous edition in 2022 and got promoted to the A Division, which they won in 2023.

ANFA is responsible for organising three top-tier domestic club football competitions– A, B and C Divisions–annually.

“C, the lowest-tier, concluded in June 2024. The B Division is beginning on Sunday. After it concludes, A Division will be organised,” said ANFA spokesperson Suresh Shah.

Making public the preparations of the B Division League at Dasharath Stadium on Friday, ANFA has anticipated a budget of Rs39,301,813 for the tournament.

“The winner will receive Rs1.5 million and the second and third-positioned teams will bag Rs1 million and Rs500,000, respectively. A winning team from each game will get an additional Rs25,000 while the two teams will be paid Rs10,000 each if the game is tied,” ANFA informed.

Breaking down the budget and sources of funding, Sanjeev Mishra, competition director at ANFA, said that the tournament received around Rs20 million from FIFA, the governing body of world football.

Nevertheless, it is not easy to have the funding released from FIFA.

“FIFA funding is received only after we fulfill the criteria set by them. They also demand B Division football to be better than C Division. Thus, there will be more match days in B Division compared to that of C. FIFA wants 100 matches, but we will be within the 90s,” said Mishra.

Currently, ANFA has finalised dates for fixtures until the eleventh round (May 21 to 25); 77 games will be played by then. While the fixtures for the games of rounds 12 and 13 (May 28 to June 8) have been revealed, their schedule has not been confirmed yet.

“Only the opening game of B Division will be played at Dasharath Stadium. Other games will be played at the Satdobato-based ANFA Complex. We are looking forward to bringing the games of the final rounds to Dasharath,” Mishra added.

The 14 teams competing in B Division include Chyasal Youth Club (YC), Jhapa FC, Brigade Boys Club, Tusal YC, RCT, Nayabasti YC, Saraswati YC, Bansbari Club, Boys Union Club, Shree Bhagwati Club, Madhyapur Youth Association, Shree Kumari Club, Planning Boyz United and Birgunj United.

Meanwhile, ANFA spokesperson Shah and competition director Mishra, told the Post that a dedicated team would also be deployed to keep the matches in check and address the risks of match fixing.

In the end, the top two teams from B Division will get promoted to A while the bottom two teams will be relegated to C.