While Prime Minister Balendra Shah was posting on Facebook about his favourite team at the 2026 World Cup, and his education and sports minister was cradling a miniature trophy with “Dream, Nepal in this someday,” the institution responsible for making that dream real was busy engineering its own destruction.

On Thursday, FIFA suspended the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) indefinitely because a handful of officials at the National Sports Council (NSC) have been unable to set aside their egos long enough to let an election happen.

The decision is a humiliation for Nepali sports without precedent. Nepal has been affiliated with FIFA since 1972. In more than half a century of dysfunction, dispute and political meddling, Nepali football had never been expelled from the world body—until this week.

“As a result [of the suspension],” the concluding paragraph of a four-page letter signed by Mattias Grafström, FIFA’s secretary, dated June 24, reads, “ANFA will lose all of its rights as a FIFA member, as defined in Article 13 of the FIFA Statutes, with immediate effect and until further notice.”

The suspension came after a series of warnings and letters from FIFA. In March, FIFA flew delegates to eastern Nepal to monitor an election that never happened. FIFA extended flexibility that, by its own admission, it rarely extends to anyone. And at every turn, the NSC—backed by a ministry that had no business in a football election—found new ways to obstruct, delay and defy.

Following the decision, ANFA will lose the rights to take part in the FIFA Congress, nominate candidates for the FIFA presidency and the Council, to participate and cast votes at FIFA elections, to participate in FIFA’s assistance and development programmes, and other rights under the Statutes and other regulations.

Sports officials say the result has left them confused, and it is a catastrophe that will take years to undo.

ANFA’s offices in Satdobato sat empty on Thursday afternoon. Security guards were stringing a rope across the entrance—the main gate had been removed for renovation, a metaphor for an institution that has spent decades gutting itself from the inside. Around 70 employees wandered without direction, waiting for someone to tell them whether they still had jobs. “We do not know what to do,” one employee said.

But not everyone seemed surprised by what had just happened.

“The suspension from FIFA was at the doorstep for the past few months,” an employee said under the condition of anonymity, as he was not allowed to speak to the media. “Everybody knew it was coming.”

Regarding the players, they left posters saying ‘Thank you ANFA’ at the ANFA building on Thursday as a satire.

FIFA waited until 26 major events and developments

FIFA has clarified itself properly regarding why the international footballing body reached the conclusion to suspend Nepali football.

FIFA has listed 26 major events and developments since December 16, 2025, to June 8, that led it to impose the suspension on ANFA following repeated third-party interference from the state under Articles 14 and 16 of the FIFA Statutes.

Article 14’s 1(i) states that the member associations should manage their affairs independently and ensure that their affairs are not influenced by any third parties.

Similarly, Article 16(1) allows the Council to suspend a member association without a vote of the Congress when the association has seriously violated its obligations.

According to FIFA, ANFA has the right to convene its Elective Congress a few months before the tenure of the previous executive committee ended. When ANFA had informed the governing bodies of its plan for early elections on December 16 last year, FIFA and AFC had given a green light.

FIFA also states that it had waited until the matter of the early election reached the Patan High Court.

FIFA was positive that the election would move ahead without disturbance after the High Court, on February 10, lifted the interim suspension of the electoral process. But it was again postponed after interference from the Election Commission, citing the nationwide election slated for March 5.

As a result, ANFA planned its elections in Jhapa on March 27. FIFA and AFC representatives had also reached the eastern part of Nepal to monitor the election. But a day before the election, the National Sports Council (NSC) suspended ANFA for three months.

“On the same day [of the suspension by the NSC], a joint FIFA/AFC delegation met with ANFA officials in Nepal ahead of its Congress,” FIFA’s letter reads. “In light of the NSC’s decision, the resulting institutional uncertainty and reported security concerns, ANFA decided to postpone its Elective Congress until further notice.”

When FIFA and the AFC requested the NSC to revoke the suspension and gave a seven-day deadline on April 4, the NSC, on April 8, replied, “…decision did not constitute undue third-party interference and should rather be considered an internal matter.”

A week later, on April 13, FIFA, the AFC, ANFA and the NSC also held a virtual meeting. There, FIFA reiterated that the situation with ANFA was third-party interference.

FIFA again gave another deadline of May 4 for the NSC to lift the suspension. But the state did otherwise.

On April 24, the state, under recommendation from the NSC and the ministry, imposed travel restrictions on 24 ANFA officials, which prevented Nepal’s participation at the AFC Congress and FIFA Congress in Vancouver, Canada.

FIFA then sent letters to the NSC on April 29, May 1 and May 4 requesting that ANFA be allowed to perform its activities without the state’s interference. It was only on May 15 that the NSC lifted the suspension on ANFA.

Still, the suspension was not completely lifted as the NSC still directed the ANFA to follow their directives—including amendment to the Statutes of ANFA and district associations and a central election only after a fresh mandate at the district level.

On June 5, FIFA again asked the NSC to confirm, by June 11, that the suspension was revoked without any conditions. “In the absence of such confirmation, or should the response not provide the necessary assurances, the matter would be submitted…for the immediate suspension of ANFA,” reads the FIFA letter.

According to FIFA, no response was received by June 11.

And when FIFA came to know that ANFA President Pankaj Bikram Nembang and General Secretary Kiran Rai were prevented from boarding the flight from the Tribhuvan International Airport on June 8, FIFA viewed it as a serious violation of their flexibility. Nembang and Rai were scheduled to attend the opening match of the FIFA World Cup in Mexico on June 11 and the FIFA Summit in Miami, USA, from June 13 to 15.

“FIFA was extremely flexible in Nepal’s case,” a former member of the NSC, who had also signed the suspension letter to ANFA, told the Post under the condition of anonymity on Thursday. “I told the Council’s meeting that we should solve this problem without affecting football activities. They turned a deaf ear as personal ego was involved.”

What do stakeholders say?

ANFA and NSC, as they have been for the past several months, are blaming each other for the “black day” in Nepali football.

“Everything we were doing was in line with the prevailing laws,” said Suresh Shah, spokesperson of ANFA. “We were following the Statutes that had been registered with the NSC.”

Shah argued that the suspension was a result of the NSC’s failure to give a written response to FIFA by June 11. “It is a black day in Nepali football,” he added.

Meanwhile, the NSC also expressed regret over FIFA’s suspension.

“The suspension was a result of ANFA’s stubbornness,” said Ram Charitra Mehta, member secretary at the NSC. “If ANFA followed our directives, this day would not come.”

Mehta argued that the NSC was now planning for a ‘normalisation committee’. “The committee will then look after the necessary activities of Nepali football,” he added.

But it is likely to only backfire because FIFA has clearly stated that the NSC needs to allow ANFA to perform its activities, including the early elections, without any interference.

FIFA has stated that the suspension will be lifted only when two conditions are met. The first requirement is the full revocation of the NSC decision on March 25 without any conditions and the reinstatement of the current ANFA Executive Committee.

“Allowing ANFA to finalise, as soon as possible and in accordance with its Statutes and regulations, the electoral process already initiated,” reads the second condition.

With the NSC in no mood to meet the conditions set by FIFA, the suspension is likely to continue for a while. It means that Nepal’s participation in the SAFF Men’s Championship, which will likely take place in October-November in Bangladesh, is also at risk.

FIFA has also informed all its member associations about the suspension of ANFA. The global body has directed all the member associations not to entertain any footballing activities with Nepal unless the suspension is lifted.