Almost three months after FIFA suspended the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) over third-party interference, the country’s football governing body finally broke its silence on Thursday.

In a tense press conference attended by around a hundred players, coaches and staff, ANFA officials delivered a stark ultimatum: the government must put aside its “ego”, align with FIFA directives, and lift administrative restrictions, or ANFA will unilaterally resume internal operations next week.

ANFA was suspended by world football’s governing body on June 24. Two days later, the National Sports Council (NSC) issued a directive freezing ANFA’s bank accounts, website, social media channels, and official vehicles. Since then, domestic football has ground to a complete halt.

“We are caught in a conceptual conflict,” ANFA General Secretary Kiran Rai told reporters. “FIFA allows us to conduct internal domestic activities despite the suspension, but our government has barred us from doing anything. We are not looking to challenge the state, but the government must tell us clearly what to do.”

ANFA President Pankaj Bikram Nembang was noticeably absent from the press conference. According to Rai, Nembang had met with Minister for Education and Sports Sasmit Pokharel on Wednesday—a meeting called after ANFA cancelled a planned protest programme at the NSC.

While Rai dismissed media rumours that the minister explicitly demanded Nembang’s resignation, internal ANFA sources confirmed the meeting was contentious, leaving Nembang ill and unfit to attend Thursday’s programme.

“If pressure was put on the president to resign, that is completely uncalled for and will not resolve anything,” Rai said. “Continuous government intervention will never lead to the lifting of the suspension.”

At the heart of the deadlock is FIFA’s non-negotiable demand: the government must annul the NSC’s March 25 decision—issued a day before ANFA’s planned early elections in Jhapa—and allow the electoral process to resume from where it was halted.

While Sports Minister Pokharel and NSC Member Secretary Ram Charitra Mehta have repeatedly claimed they are in email negotiations with FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation, ANFA officials contend that secret correspondence without fulfilling FIFA’s core demand is useless.

The human and financial toll of the three-month standoff is catastrophic. ANFA Chief Executive Officer Indra Man Tuladhar revealed that the association’s financial liabilities have crossed Rs100 million. Injured national players remain untreated, youth academies are shuttered, and preparation and participation for the FIFA U15 World Cup is at risk.

Nepal has already lost participation in six international competitions. If the suspension is not lifted by September 30, Nepal will be officially barred from the upcoming Men’s SAFF Championship.

“The situation has become so dire that players, coaches, and staff who depend on football for their livelihood are facing extreme financial ruin,” Tuladhar said, urging immediate state action. “When people stripped of their livelihoods start contemplating drastic measures like self-harm out of sheer desperation, the government must realise the crisis is no longer just administrative—it is human.”

ANFA officials stated that if the government fails to issue a clear, constructive roadmap by next week, the association will move forward on its own terms to restart domestic activities.