The ANFA Women’s League Qualifiers is set to start today with 14 teams aiming for the five spots in the senior division.

ANFA Women’s League, the highest division of women club football in Nepal, has 10 slots. Of them, the top five teams in the league table retain their spot while the other five get knocked out.

Sankata FC, Chandrapur Municipality, Karnali Province and Sudurpashchim Province had been knocked out of the senior division based on their finishes in the league table last season. Koshi Province, which finished fifth in the previous season, is the other team to be relegated as they pulled out citing financial problems.

Meanwhile, the qualifiers will see 14 teams divided into two groups of seven each. Group A comprises Church Boys United (Kathmandu), Chhahari Yuwa Club (Kathmandu), Rapti FC (Kathmandu), Sindhupalchok FC (Sindhupalchok), Student’s Football Club (Kathmandu), RS Resort and Beach Football (Kaski), and FC Reale (Bhaktapur).

Similarly, Group B consists of New Road Team (Kathmandu), Sankata FC (Kathmandu), Butwal Lumbini FC (Rupandehi), NBM Pokhara Girls FC (Kaski), Jhapa FC (Jhapa), Lamki Football and Training Centre (Kailali), and Nepal Khelkud Club (Rautahat).

Organising a press conference at the Satdobato-based ANFA Complex on Wednesday, ANFA officials informed that all preparations were complete for the qualifiers. Alongside the ANFA Complex ground, Chyasal Stadium in Lalitpur will also host the matches.

With the qualifiers, Chyasal Stadium, situated along the bank of the Manohara river in Balkumari, will resume hosting football matches after repair. It was damaged by floods in September last year.

As per the tournament structure, each team will play six games in their respective groups in a single round-robin structure. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Women’s League. There will be a knockout game between the third-placed teams of the two groups for the fifth spot.

There will be a total of 43 games in the qualifiers. Of them, the first 14 games will be played at the artificial turf of ANFA Complex, and all the remaining fixtures will be played at the grassy ground of Chyasal Stadium.

There will be 22 match days in total. The first 21 match days will see one game each from both groups, while the last day, on September 8, will see the knockout fixture between the third-placed teams.

The first match day will see Chhahari Yuwa Club vs FC Reale from Group A and Sankata FC vs Nepal Khelkud Club from Group B.