The ANFA Women’s League Qualifiers concluded on Monday with Jhapa FC becoming the final and the fifth team to be promoted to the Women’s League, the senior division of women’s club football in the country.

Jhapa defeated Rapti FC with a late goal to win the match 1-0 at Chyasal Stadium in Lalitpur. With three minutes added after the end of the 90 minutes of regulation time, Rekha Bista, who was subbed in at the 88th minute, scored the only goal of the match at 90+2 minutes.

It was the first goal for Bista in her five appearances in the qualifiers. She had started against NBM Pokhara Girls FC and Sankata FC in the first two matches of Jhapa, while she was subbed in during the second half against Nepal Khelkud Club. She was not in the squad against NRT and was subbed in at the 31st minute against Butwal Lumbini, but did not play against Lamki Football and Training Centre in Jhapa’s last group match.

Jhapa and Rapti were competing for the final spot in the senior league as the third-positioned teams in their respective groups. Of the 14 teams divided into two groups, Rapti and Jhapa had finished third in Groups A and B, respectively.

In the qualifiers, which began on August 14 and were played in a single round-robin format, two of the top teams from each group were promoted. Church Boys United (CBU) and RS Resort and Beach Football had already qualified from Group A as the two top teams, while Sankata FC and NRT were promoted from Group B.

Goal scorers

There were 38 goal scorers in Group A and 39 in Group B. Of the scorers from Group A, three netted a hat-trick. Sabina Tamang of Student’s FC and Rebika Nepali of Rapti FC scored three individual goals in the match against Sindhupalchowk FC and Student’s FC, respectively. Sarita BK of RS Resort and Beach Football, on the other hand, scored four goals in the match against Sindhupalchowk FC.

Regarding Group B, there were five players—Jhapa’s Eima Rai, Khelkud’s Yashodha Kumari Chiral, NRT’s Sajina Syangtan, Sankata’s Purnima Rai and Khelkud’s Anita Rana Magar—with a hat-trick each. Of them, Eima, Chiral, Purnima and Magar completed their hat-trick against a common opponent, NBM Pokhara. Magar had scored four goals in the match. Syangtan had her hat-trick against Lamki.

BK’s four goals against Sindhupalchowk helped her become the highest scorer of the match. With two goals against Student’s FC, BK had six goals in the qualifiers. She was followed by nine others with five goals.

RS Resort’s Isha Chaudhary, Sindhupalchowk’s Anu Bhusal, CBU’s Sujata Palungwa and Barsha Oli, Student’s Sabina Tamang, Jhapa’s Eima, Khelkud’s Chiral, NRT’s Syangtan, Sankata’s Purnima were the ones who became the second-highest scorers in the qualifiers.

Sankata will be returning to the 10-team top league after being knocked out as one of the five teams last season. Chandrapur Municipality, Karnali Province and Sudurpashchim Province were the other teams that were knocked out, while Koshi Province, despite being in the top five, had backed out citing financial problems.