Nepal’s 2019 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers’ home match against Yemen on June 12 will see a low attendance after the All Nepal Football Association (Anfa) decided to sell only 700 tickets for the big clash.

After the destructive 2015 earthquake damaged the only international standard Dashrath Stadium, Nepal has not been able to host high-profile international football matches. After the Great Quake in April that year, Nepal hosted the first Saff U-19 Championship and Nepal-Malaysia Women’s Friendly but in the astro turf at the Anfa Complex.

Since the Asian Cup matches need to be played in natural turf, Anfa proposed the Nepal APF Headquarters in Halchowk as the venue for the Yemen match. Halchowk doesn’t even have a crowd capacity of 2,500 and due to security reasons, the football governing body decided to sell only 700 tickets for the public.

Anfa has handed over all the ticket management responsibilities to ‘esewa’ setting a prize of Rs 1,000 for each ticket. The tickets will only be sold online with the booking to open from Saturday. The low attendance is a big irony for the most popular sport in the country that once accommodated more than 17,000 supporters at the Dashrath Stadium. On Friday, Anfa said it has completed all the preparations for the game calling a press conference. Nepal are in the Group ‘F’ of the Qualifiers that also includes Philippines and Tajikistan. Yemen are arriving in Kathmandu on June 11.

Nepal had opened their Qualifying campaign with a 4-1 away defeat to Philippines in March. The home and away Qualifiers will send two teams from each of the six groups. The Qualifying teams will join 12 nations who have already qualified for the 2019 Asia Cup to be held in the United Arab Emirates.