The Armed Police Force (APF) Club are the dominant side in the domestic women’s football scene in Nepal. They have won the last four editions of the ANFA Women’s League, the top-tier club football of the country. They have not lost a single match in the last four seasons—2017-18, 2021, 2022 and 2024.

They qualified for the semi-finals of the 2017-18 season with three wins in the group among four teams, and then went on to win the semi-final and the final. In the 2021 season, which saw a double round-robin league stage among seven teams, APF won all 12 matches to be crowned the champions.

Meanwhile, the 2022 season was played in a single round-robin format between eight teams, and APF won all seven fixtures to win the league. The 2024 season, on the other hand, was played among 10 teams, in a single round-robin format; APF won eight matches and played a goalless draw against Nepal Police Club to top the points table and lift the trophy.

It was because of APF winning the 2024 season that they were playing in the inaugural SAFF Women’s Club Championship, which kicked off between the top clubs from the domestic top-tier league of five South Asian countries at Dasharath Stadium on December 5.

‘National team in disguise’

However, the domestic dominance of APF has been noticeably missing on the sub-continental stage. This is not because the opposing teams are weak, but because APF is simply too strong on paper to be struggling like this.

APF’s squad is packed with so many international stars that they are essentially the Nepali national team in disguise. The national team’s most recent assignment was a tri-nation series in Indonesia against the hosts and Chinese Taipei on November 29 and December 2, respectively. The continuity between that national squad and the current APF side is absolute. A look at the team sheets confirms the overlap: every single player in APF’s starting XI against Karachi City on Sunday was also part of the national squad that toured Indonesia.

Given this wealth of experience and talent, the expectation was that they would control matches comfortably. Instead, seeing a team of such high calibre labouring to get results against regional clubs is a surprising underperformance.

APF started their SAFF campaign with a dominating victory, of 4-0, against Bangladesh’s Nasrin Sports Academy on December 5. However, when APF faced Bhutan’s Transport United FC in their second match on December 11, it ended in a goalless draw.

“Yes, it was not a result to be happy about when we could not score against Transport United,” APF’s head coach Jibesh Pandey said in a brief talk with the broadcasting team before the match against Karachi City FC kicked off on Sunday. “We will give a better result today.”

And when APF’s third of the four league-stage matches, against Pakistan’ Karachi City, concluded, APF won 1-0, but with the help of a hard-earned goal to earn three crucial points.

Winning ugly against Karachi

“We came to the match with one aim: three points,” APF’s head coach Jibesh Pandey said in the post-match conference after the win over Karachi. “We got those points, and it is what matters.”

However, Pandey could not find the words to say that he was proud of the team’s performance. But when asked if APF needed to find better players to improve their goal scoring prowess, mostly with the lack of goal machine Sabitra Bhandari aka Samba, Pandey said, “We have the best players of Nepal in our team. The only choice we now have is to bring in foreign players.”

There were more than sufficient chances for APF to score a good number of goals against Karachi. The conversion rate would have been zero had it not been for Rashmi Kumari Ghising finding the back of the net in the 52nd minute with a header in the cross by experienced Renuka Nagarkote. Less than a minute before the goal, there were two chances missed by APF.

It was Ghising’s third goal of the tournament, following a brace in the 4-0 win over Nasrin. Adjudged the player of the match, Ghising was the highest scorer of the tournament by the end of the match.

Meanwhile, there were good chances for Karachi, who were playing their last match of the tournament, to score their first goal of the championship as well. But APF’s goalie Anjana Rana Magar, alongside the defensive line, which got stronger after Gita Rana made a comeback in the first half, replacing Man Maya Damai, foiled the chances of Karachi.

Rana had missed Nepal’s matches in India and Indonesia as she was recovering after a shoulder surgery. But she announced her recovery after entering the field against Karachi.

“APF played well,” Karachi’s head coach Adeel Mirza Rizki said in the post-match conference. “If we had the ball more, we could have altered the result.”

Rizki, who is also the head coach of the Pakistani national women’s team, stressed that he was happy with the team’s overall performance in the championship. “We were a new team and came with less preparation,” he said. “There is not much football in Pakistan. Our players play five-a-side games more than 11-a-side. But the tournament by SAFF was a much-needed event to develop South Asian football further. We plan to come back stronger next time.”

East Bengal keep the momentum going

East Bengal of India and Nasrin Sports Academy were playing their respective third match of the tournament in the second match of Sunday. While the Indian champions were entering the ground with two wins in two matches, the Bangladeshi champions had suffered a defeat and played a goalless draw in their previous fixtures.

Both teams had their fans, though in small numbers, at Dasharath Stadium. Moreover, East Bengal had a figure who is respected greatly in Nepal’s sports sector, supporting them from the stands: Monty Desai, the former head coach of Nepal’s men’s cricket team, who returned to Nepal to coach Kathmandu Gorkhas in the second season of the Nepal Premier League.

Nasrin still had a chance to finish as the top two teams and book a place in the final had they defeated East Bengal. But they suffered a heavy defeat, and it was East Bengal who secured their seat in the final after securing three straight victories.

East Bengal led 4-0 in the first half alone. Fazila Ikwaput scored a hat-trick, the first of the SAFF Women’s Club Championship, while Jyoti Chouhan scored the other goal in 45+1 minutes. Ikwaput scored her first goal of the match in the seventh minute, while the second and third goals came in the 27th and 45th minutes, respectively.

While Nasrin kept the scoresheet stagnant for some time in the second half, Sulanjana Raul extended it to 5-0 in the 73rd minute. And in the next minute, Ikwaput scored her individual fourth goal to make it half-a-dozen.

The goal tally reached seven in the 90th minute when Ikwaput stole the ball from Nasrin’s goalkeeper and found the back of the net for her fifth individual goal. Ikwaput, who was playing for Gokulam Kerala in the 2024-25 Indian Women’s League, has been a major addition for the league champions.

With four goals, Ikwaput bested Ghising to become the top scorer of the tournament. Ikwaput, the Ugandan international, now has six goals in three games.

“I had been associated with Fazila before as well,” said Anthony Samson Andrews, head coach of East Bengal, after the win over Nasrin. “She has been inducted into the team with a long-term plan. Her abilities can be witnessed by anyone who watches the game.”

Nasrin also had their chance to deny East Bengal a clean sheet, but failed.

“It was a bad day for us,” Mohammad Monir Hossain, Nasrin’s head coach, said after the loss. “We will be taking the positives from today. We focus on our next game.”

Nasrin’s defeat also ensured that APF qualified for the final on a numerical basis. The Bangladeshi club will play their last match of the tournament against Transport United in the first match of December 17.

East Bengal are at the top of the table with nine points from three matches, and APF are second with seven points from three games. Who will finish at the top of the table will be decided when the two meet for their last league-stage match, which will be a match between the two finalists before the fight for the title, in the second fixture of December 17.

“We play for the fans. And we hope there will be more fans in the next game,” Andrews said when asked how the team felt to hear cheers far from home. “We are here for a special reason. We always look forward to making our fans smile.”