The All Nepal Football Association officials who accompanied the national women’s team head coach, Patrick De Wilde, to Uzbekistan responded on Wednesday to recent remarks made by the Belgian coach.

In a press meet organised at the ANFA Complex in Satdobato, Lalitpur, the federation addressed the issues raised by De Wilde, Nepal women’s team’s first UEFA Pro License holder coach, in an exclusive interview with the Post on Sunday night, which was published on Tuesday.

In the interview, De Wilde spoke of what he described as mismanagement within the country’s football governing body. He expressed concern over interference from the accompanying management team during the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers, as well as what he characterised as ANFA’s poor response in providing the basic equipment and resources necessary for the team to prepare and perform at a professional level.

The officials—ANFA executive member and head of delegation to the tournament Sarila Shrestha Maleku, ANFA Technical Director Hari Khadka, assistant coach Rajendra Tamang, and team manager Bindra Dewan—stressed that they were ready to solve the issues. However, they expressed dissatisfaction over the head coach sharing his concerns to the media firsthand.

“After losing the game, the responsibility should rest with the head coach. It should be like this because I also looked after the national team before,” Khadka said. “He should have spoken about the shortcomings after returning to Nepal and expressed his needs. And if ANFA still failed to address his demands, then he could have organised a press meet to state his concerns.”

Khadka, however, acknowledged receiving multiple letters, including his demands and concerns, from the head coach while the team was in Tashkent.

“He had sent me a letter regarding the commotion caused during the first match against Laos over the captain as well,” Khadka said.

While providing Nepal’s official lineup to the Asian Football Confederation for the match against Laos, Renuka Nagarkote was billed as the captain. ANFA also posted the same lineup with Nagarkote as captain on its social media channels.

However, before kickoff, Sabitra Bhandari ‘Samba’ walked out of the dressing room wearing the captain’s armband.

Speaking at the press meet, Maleku said that Nagarkote was listed as captain in the lineup submitted to the AFC because the coach had still not disclosed the final captain choice, despite providing the rest of the lineup—a process she described as “a struggle” in itself.

“We had requested the coach to decide on the captain even during the farewell programme in Kathmandu [on June 23],” Maleku said. “He, however, insisted on revealing it only in Uzbekistan.”

Maleku further stated that when the coach finally provided the lineup during his last team meeting before leaving for the stadium for the match against Laos on June 29, he did not mention who the captain would be.

“We cannot send the lineup without mentioning the captain,” she explained. “We had to finalise it at least 90 minutes before kickoff.”

Maleku added, “As the coach was not in the mood to disclose the captain even when the team boarded the bus from the hotel to the stadium, and the submission time was about to end, the team manager and I decided on the seniormost player in the squad, Renuka Nagarkote.”

Meanwhile, sports news outlet HamroKhelkud.com reports that the letter sent by Wilde—which it says it had reviewed—stated that he had informed the manager before leaving the hotel that Samba would be the captain. But the manager denied this claim at Wednesday’s press meet.

On the other hand, assistant coach Tamang, who is also a former head coach of the women’s team, revealed that Wilde had mentioned either defender Gita Rana or striker Sabitra Bhandari as his captain choice even before the farewell programme.

Goalkeeping coach Suraj Kumar Lama also informed that Wilde had already shared his opinion not to have a goalkeeper as the captain. “The head coach had cited the current rules as only the captain can raise concerns on on-field decisions, and it is difficult for the goalie to reach the incident site now and then during the game,” Lama said.

Maleku added that since they did not have a clear response from the head coach on match day, they decided on Renuka Nagarkote as the captain.

That decision led to an outburst from the head coach inside the dressing room. After the incident, there was no further two-way communication between the head coach and either the manager or the head of delegation.

“The delay in confirming the lineup was to maintain focus and discipline among all squad members,” Wilde told the Post earlier. “Those who are not in the starting eleven would have taken their preparation lightly as well.”

Addressing the issues raised by Wilde over the lack of ice for players’ recovery after training in Tashkent, team manager Dewan said it was sometimes difficult to arrange it because the coach would make such requests without prior notice.

“We were dependent on the hotel for the ice, and their ice machine was not a big one,” Dewan said. “So when the coach demanded it suddenly, it was difficult to manage. But we did arrange it as soon as possible.”

Despite the commotion, however, Khadka acknowledged that the Belgian national led the team well during the tournament and praised his tactics and gameplay. But he said he was not satisfied with the coach attributing the penalty shootout loss to the video conference with the prime minister and other high-level officials, calling it an unacceptable excuse.

ANFA did not provide a clear answer on whether the association planned to retain Wilde as head coach following the controversy.

“I have sent a message to the head coach stating that we need to have a proper conversation, but I have not received his reply yet,” Khadka said.

The Post’s attempt to contact Wilde for a comment following the press meet was unsuccessful.