December 5, 2025, will be a date to be remembered as the beginning of a new era in South Asian women’s football. It marks the first match day of the inaugural SAFF Women’s Club Championship.

The Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu hosted the first edition of the championship between the top teams of the top-tier league from five countries affiliated with the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). There were two matches on Friday, with four teams competing.

The tournament opener saw Karachi City FC, winner of the 2024 National Women Football Championship of Pakistan, face Transport United Ladies FC, runners-up of the 2024 Bhutan Women’s National League.

The second match of the day witnessed the home team, the Armed Police Force (APF) Club, winner of the 2024 ANFA Women’s League, host Nasrin Sports Academy, winner of the 2023-24 Bangladesh Women’s Football League. The fifth team participating in the event is East Bengal FC, winner of the 2024-25 Indian Women’s League.

The tournament, as per the SAFF, is expected to bring together the best teams from the South Asian countries and provide them with a platform to test their might against the best clubs of different countries. In whole, the SAFF expects the championship to help women’s football develop further.

Rashmi Kumari Ghising: tournament’s first scorer

As the first match between Karachi City and Transport United ended in a goalless draw, it was APF’s Rashmi Kumari Ghising who will be remembered as the tournament’s first-ever goalscorer.

Despite both teams creating chances to open their respective goal tally, none could capitalise. Transport United were the dominant side with the ball against Karachi City, who had an upper hand in physicality.

Thus, the Pakistani club, which was led by Pakistan national women’s team head coach Adeel Mirza Rizki, and the Bhutanese side, comprised 90 percent of the senior national team players, shared points in the first match of the tournament; a result none of them wanted.

But when APF faced Nasrin under the floodlights in the second match of the day, the tournament found its scorer. Ghising found the back of the net from outside the six-yard box in the 38th minute, capitalising on the back pass from youngster Mina Deuba.

While the first half ended with APF leading by a goal, it turned chaotic for the travelling side in the second half. It was Deuba who ran with the ball from the left flank to score a solo just before the clock ticked 70:00 minutes.

Leading 2-0, the APF started pressuring Nasrin more. As a result, Ghising scored her second goal and extended the lead to three goals in the 80th minute. She was later adjudged the player of the match.

And as the match was in the second minute of the three-minute added time, Deuba again ran with the ball, this time from the right flank, outrunning a Nasrin defender, who let Deuba run by stopping midway, to take the score to 4-0.

APF’s head coach Jibesh Pandey and skipper Anita Basnet, during the pre-tournament conference on Thursday, had shared that the team was battling with fatigue. The Nepali women’s national team, which is almost filled with players associated with APF, had landed in Kathmandu on Wednesday midnight, returning from a tri-national friendly in Indonesia. APF players had also been playing continuous football since June, not getting enough rest and recovery time. But they did not let it affect them against Nasrin on Friday.

After registering their first win of the campaign, in front of 3,500+ passionate Nepali football fans, Pandey said that he was happy with the team’s performance. “Despite not being able to practise as a team, the girls played extremely well,” he said in the post-match conference.

Asked how much promise he saw in the young defenders Man Maya Damai and Pratikshya Chaudhary, Pandey said, “Their individual performance was good, but they still have a lot to improve.”

Chaudhary and Damai have been included in the senior national team for quite a while, but have yet to get time to play. Yet, they played the whole game against Nasrin, and their performance showed that they had a lot to provide for the national team, as well as the APF, in the future.

Alongside Damai and Chaudhary, Nasrin’s attack struggled throughout the match to get past the four-player defence led by the experienced Nisha Thokar and Hira Kumari Bhujel.

“We are looking for the final despite arriving with most players from the U20 and U17 categories. It was because the club could not afford the senior team players, who are now preparing for the Asian Cup,” said Md Monir Hossain, head coach of Nasrin. “And if we face APF again, we will give a better result than tonight.”

Hossain also stressed that his players struggled to give their best in the chilly weather of Kathmandu.

After a two-day gap, East Bengal will play their first match of the tournament against Transport United on December 8. The second match on December 8 will feature Karachi City vs Nasrin Sports Academy.