Karma Tsering Sherpa, the president of the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA), has completed one year in office. Sherpa led a revolt against former president Ganesh Thapa and his ways of working that resulted in the latter being banned by FIFA for 10-year Fifa for bribery.

Also the president of ‘A’ division outfits Himalayan Sherpa Club, Sherpa’s first year at the helm of the football governing body could not be free from controversies despite his efforts to clean up the long-tainted football body. The Kathmandu Post’s Prajwal Oli caught up with Sherpa to talk about his efforts in improving ANFA in the last year.

This interview has been condensed for clarity.

How satisfied are you with your tenure at ANFA so far?

It’s a process, and I believe that one should not be satisfied with the work done. But in this period we have been largely successful laying down a proper foundation for the development of football. Women's football, for example, has made a strong presence in the international arena, making it to the second round of AFC U-19 and Olympics Qualifier. One of the many promises during the election was establishing a technical centre for women. We acted in this regard by corresponding with FIFA to establish one. We have called for tenders, and hopefully, the process will be completed by next year, thereby paving the way for the recruitment of footballers.

The football academies in Dharan and Butwal were not in operation for the last seven years. We started its operation after undertaking some renovations. We are in the early stages of forming national teams of various age groups. To strengthen our senior men’s national team, we have already hired a foreign coach. We have made the necessary amendment to the ANFA statute in line with a new provincial setup and have adopted financial and employee regulations for the first time. We have tried to make ANFA well organised by forming various eight departments under the guidelines provided by the Asian Football Confederation consultants. We lack proper training facilities and infrastructure for ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ Division clubs. So we have sent some proposals to FIFA and AFC to sort out the issue to some extent. These initiatives in the first year of our rein are promising in terms of long-term development.

There is still a dispute in the land acquisition process for the Women’s Technical Centre in Nijgadh, as the proposed land is owned by the Ministry of Forest. How will that project take off?

I don’t see any dispute in the land as it belongs to a community forest and the forest users’ group had leased it to ANFA for 25 years. The Municipal Council has also endorsed it, and the division forest office has prepared a report and sent it to the concerned ministry for approval. So it cannot be called an illegal process. The structure of the building has already been approved. We will complete all the required legal procedures in line with the existing law of the country.

What were the things that you focused mostly on during your first year in office?

We are focusing mainly on five different areas: organised training, infrastructure development, systematic tournaments, capacity building and good governance. We have been running various training programmes targeting youths. But our efforts alone will not be sufficient in the long run. So we are planning to conduct more of such trainings in collaboration with local governments.

We will come up with a concrete calendar which will ensure windows for each of the tournaments ranging from age-group, women’s football, several tiers of national leagues, knockout tournaments and international matches.

ANFA will have a national league that will include teams from districts and ‘A’ division clubs. We are planning to start women’s top-tier league featuring at least 10 teams: three departmental and seven provincial.

Under capacity building, we have started coaches’ training, and once the vacant position of technical director, we will start ‘C’ and ‘B’ coaching license course in Nepal. FIFA and AFC have already approved our programmes. We have also conducted a referee training course for seven provinces in five different cities, and three more will start shortly. To promote good governance, we will ensure transparency in policy making as well as financial and administrative aspects. To materialise our plans, we have formed an audit and compliance committee, disciplinary committee, audit and appeal committee.

How are financial regulations going to help ANFA?

The financial regulations will make the transactions of ANFA transparent, and it will be binding in nature. For instance, a committee tasked with construction or procurement will be in direct supervision of ANFA and will not be able to cross the threshold set by the governing body. There will be lesser chances of irregularities now that financial regulations are in place.

Though you have advocated for transparency, some ANFA officials have been blaming you for corruption during AFC U-16 tournament last year. What do you say to that?

It was just an attempt to tarnish my image. After the allegation, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority formed a probe committee, and it gave a clean chit. I am also a bit disappointed with the media as it carried the issue prominently but once we got the clean chit, no one reported about that. Many people keep on hounding me personally. They are bent on making our reign a failure. But I will not be distracted by such attempts and will not compromise my bid to uplift Nepali football.

You made many promises in the lead up to ANFA election, including finding sponsors for clubs. Have you addressed them all?

I made commitments, but I did not say I will address them in one year. One of the major promises was to ease the financial burdens off the clubs. We have been able to address it to some extent by providing top-tier clubs the preparation fees of Rs2 million each, besides facilitating them with providing Rs1 million each from the metropolitan offices.

We don’t have any internal resources to strengthen our finances apart from a few sponsors and revenues collected from ticket sales at the Dashrath Stadium.

How far have you moved in your bid to steamroll the knockout football tournaments?

We already held discussions regarding this matter with the stakeholders, and most of the things have been finalised. We are in the process of drafting regulations. We have already completed the classification of tournaments. Previously tournaments used to be fielded by a few selected clubs. But the new regulations will put an end to the trend. Unlike in the past, unauthorised foreign teams like Dauphins will not be allowed to play unless FA approves them of their respective countries. No international teams will be allowed to play more than two tournaments either. ANFA will itself mediate in bringing international teams.

Nabin Pandey, who was one of your close aides during the movement that toppled former ANFA president Ganesh Thapa, has deserted you. What is the reason behind that?

How can I say why he left us or what were his grievances? You should ask him, not me. I heard him blaming me for favouritism, which I strongly deny. But in the resignation letter submitted to us [by Nabin Pande, ANFA Head of International Relations and Advisor to ANFA President], he has cited personal reasons for stepping down from the post. People can come and go but the process of changing for the better will continue. All I can say is, if I make mistakes, I am ready to correct them.

Nepali football’s presence is limited to South Asia only. Even in the region, it has been struggling to put up a commanding show. When can we expect Nepal to be a strong South Asian force and start looking towards Asia?

We get a nominal grant of Rs12.2 million from the government per annum: Rs5.5 million for ‘A’ Division League, Rs2.7 million for women’s tournament, and Rs2 million for school tournaments and players’ felicitations. If the government takes serious steps to make men’s and women’s league football well managed, we could become much more competitive. We could up our game if the government makes an investment of around Rs200 million to Rs250 million per year and constructs at least two more international-standard stadiums. If that happens, we could become a South Asian powerhouse in less than three years.

We must ensure that our top-tier league runs for at least six to eight months. Among seven SAFF members, Maldives has been performing significantly better than in other countries since the government has been making huge investments. The Maldives government has been providing a grant of $250,000 each to all 10 top-tier clubs. If the government constructs two international-standard stadiums, we could host many international matches which will not only provide exposure to the players but also help raise money through ticket revenues. As it stands, we are almost entirely dependent on FIFA and AFC grants to run our programmes.