Gurung received 98.71 percent of the total votes and won Hyundai Eon car worth Rs 1.7 million."This is by far the biggest award I have ever received," said Gurung. "This is the reward for all the hard work I have put in on the field. I had a wonderful season last year where we (MMC) also won the league. The honour makes the season even memorable." Of the total 1,75,942 SMS votes, Gurung received 1,64,729 votes.

Nepal Police Club forward Bharat Khawas and his teammate midfielder Bhola Siwal finished inside the top three of the 20 players in contention. ANFA had devised a method where points awarded by sports journalists and coaches as well as SMS voting accounted for the overall winner.

Meanwhile, Minister for Youth and Sports Purushottam Poudel urged Anfa to sort out their internal problems that came to fore a few days earlier with four top-tier clubs taking exception to the way the football governing body is being run. Minister Poudel, however, hailed Anfa for coming up with different ways of rewarding players. "You can't ignore the fingers that are raised against you (Anfa) and the best way to sort it out is to answer the critics and doubters with clarity," said Poudel.

Anfa president Ganesh Thapa urged the dissatisfied executive members to solve the problems through dialogue. "We keep records of financial dealings with the accounting system that Fifa also follow," said Thapa. "If anyone have problems with that all I can say is to suggest us the best alternative." Thapa has long been accused of not being transparent in not just the financial matters but also its plans and programmes.

Anfa president promised to hand over the remaining prize money to the league champions MMC and runners-up Machhindra FC before the AFC President's Cup (that kicks of on May 1).

The four top-flight clubs have decided to boycott all Anfa meetings until the football governing body clears dues including a portion of league prize money.