All Nepal Football Association on Tuesday elevated Pankaj Bikram Nembang to the post of senior vice-president, a year after the new central executive committee was elected.

Nembang was one of the four vice presidents of the current ANFA body which was elected on May 5 last year. The appointment of the senior vice president, the second in ANFA hierarchy, had been a headache for president Karma Tsering Sherpa as three vice presidents—Nembang, Bir Bahadur Khadka and Krishna Thapa—had been claiming their stakes for the post. Even the Asian Football Confederation had lately raised concerns over the delay in appointing the senior vice-president.

While Thapa pulled out of the race for post lately, Khadka was still considered to be in the run. Also the vice- president of the previous committees led by now suspended Ganesh Thapa and Narendra Shrestha, Khadka had been claiming himself as the favourite considering his previous tenure. On the contrary, Nembang had been claiming for the post owing to his popularity which he believed was highlighted by the number of votes he garnered in the election in May last year.

ANFA announced through a press release on Tuesday that Nembang was appointed unanimously by the executive meeting. But the reality is that the decision was made after Khadka and two other executive committee members Ratna Shrestha and Purna Man Chitrakar walked off the meeting saying it as an unconstitutional move.

“The decision was made in an unconstitutional manner as it was called on seven-day notice. While the new ANFA statute requires seven-day notice, the old ones needed at least 14-day prior notice before calling any exco meeting. Since the new statute is yet to be approved by the National Sports Council, we needed to follow the old ones. I reminded it to the president but the meeting went on,” said Khadka. He added that the president (Sherpa) was adamant in continuing the meeting saying the statute (regarding the new time frame to call the meetings) has been approved by FIFA and AFC. “We had no option but to walk out of the meet,” said Khadka.

“For me the whole procedure was unconstitutional. It was Sherpa who had advocated the rule of law, transparency and good governance before the election. But he himself is violating his promises. Now we will take matter of transparency and good governance to the National Sports Council and Ministry of Youth and Sports,” added Khadka.

ANFA spokesperson Kiran Rai admitted that Khadka had questioned the legitimacy of the meeting but had not staked his claims for the senior vice president post.

“The exco itself held a discussion on whether the meeting was unconstitutional. But it unanimously considered it to be legal and as per statute,” said Rai.