Martyr’s Memorial ANFA Women’s League, Nepal’s top-tier women’s football tournament, is kicking off at Chyasal Stadium in Lalitpur on Wednesday.

The tournament, previously known only as ANFA Women’s League, features nine teams: Three departmental clubs—Armed Police Force FC, Nepal Police Club and Tribhuvan Army FC—are accompanied by Sankata FC, Church Boys United, New Road Team (NRT), Bagmati Youth Club, Jhapa FC and RS Resort and Beach Football, Pokhara. It will be played in a single round-robin format in the first stage.

The top five teams will progress to the Super 5 and will directly qualify for the next season of the tournament. With the top five teams competing in a double round-robin format, the top four teams will enter the playoffs and fight for the title. The fifth team will neither get relegated nor will it get to contest for the title.

For now, fixtures have been finalised for the first stage only, which will begin with two matches on Wednesday—NRT vs Sankata at 11am and Army vs Jhapa at 3pm—at Chyasal Stadium, which has received a facelift in a month after being criticised as ‘unfit’ by National League clubs.

Sankata, NRT, Jhapa, RS Pokhara and Church Boys are the five teams that progressed to the top-tier through the ANFA Women’s League Qualifier held in August-September last year.

There were 14 teams in the qualifier, divided into two groups of seven each. The top two teams from each group and the winner of the game between the third-placed teams from each group qualified for the main tournament.

Church Boys and RS Pokhara were the top two teams from Group A, while Sankata and NRT topped Group B. Jhapa defeated Rapti 1-0, thanks to a late goal by Rekha Bista, to qualify as the final and fifth team.

Despite the loss to Jhapa, Rapti had almost made it to the top-tier as Waling Municipality, which had finished as one of the top five clubs in the previous season of the league, backed off citing financial reasons. To fill Waling’s gap, Rapti were selected by ANFA on March 10, only to be disallowed three days later, citing a decision by the majority of the participating clubs that Rapti were ineligible.

Departmental teams the favourites

The National Women’s League has never had a fixed number of participants.

Started as the Mayor’s Cup Women’s Football Championship Shield in 1998, Nepal’s women’s club football competition saw 23 teams in the All Nepal Ladies Football Championship in 2006, 22 district teams in the ANFA Mayos Inter School District Wide Ladies Football Knockout Tournament in 2007, and 10 district teams in the President’s Cup National Women’s Football Tournament in 2008.

It was in 2010 that the tournament was named the National Women’s League, with participation from five development regions and APF. APF won it.

The tournament saw all three departmental clubs in action in 2012 and a new champion—Nepal Police Club. Police were unbeatable after that. They emerged victorious in the next three seasons—2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16—with Army as the runner-up.

It was Sabitra Bhandari who played a key role in bringing winning days to APF. Since winning the 2017-18 season, APF continued their winning streak, lifting the titles in 2021, 2022 and 2024.

However, APF will not have an easy time becoming the first team to win the Women’s League for five straight seasons.

“We were the ones who brought APF’s winning streak to an end,” Rabindra Shrestha, assistant coach of Police, said in the pre-tournament press conference at ANFA Complex on Tuesday. “We believe we can defeat them [APF] again as we are aiming for the title this season.”

APF’s winning run had come to an end when Police defeated them in the final to lift the Jhapa Women’s Gold Cup in November last year.

“We have a stronger team with four new players—Mina Deuba, Sushma Tamang, Birsana Chaudhary and Sabina Chaudhary,” Shrestha added.

Having left their mark in underage tournaments for the national team, Deuba, Tamang, Birsana and Sabina are emerging talents in Nepali women’s football.

Meanwhile, APF have been falling short of their key players. Nepal’s goal machine Sabitra Bhandari, midfield maestro Preeti Rai and experienced goalkeeper Anjila Tumbapo Subba are not with APF currently. Similarly, Sabita Rana Magar, who is currently recovering from a knee surgery, will also be unavailable for APF.

But APF believe they are not going to let the absences affect their performance while they defend their title.

“We are physically and mentally ready for the tournament,” said Jibesh Kumar Pandey, head coach of APF. “We are looking to defend the title successfully, though other teams are getting better.”

Pandey informed that the quotas for foreign players were also increased to help other teams get stronger and more competitive. “Three foreign players were allowed in the playing set before. Now, it is four,” he said. “We might not include foreign faces in our squad, but we believe other clubs will strengthen their squad with overseas players.”

APF and Police will have another big challenge—Army—in their quest for the title.

“Keeping results aside, we have never been dominated by APF whenever we faced them,” said Raju Tamang, Army’s head coach, when asked how Army planned to tackle APF’s challenge. “We have trained and prepared well to fight for the title.”

Army are the only departmental side without a title in the women’s league. “We have had problems with our finishing, and we have worked extensively on it this time,” Tamang said. “We will not repeat our mistakes.”

Other clubs not to be taken lightly

Departmental clubs have long been the favourites with their star-studded lineups. Other clubs now aim to end their dominance.

“It has been inspiring to see the belief among the players to challenge experienced faces in departmental clubs,” said Bikram Maharjan, head coach of Church Boys United. “Our players have been active by participating in different tournaments for different clubs. They seem more than ready to show their abilities in the league.”

The expertise of Maharjan, who was the head coach of the Nepal women’s team when they went to Thailand for the inaugural SAFF Futsal Championship, is likely to be a plus point for Church Boys.

Church Boys United’s skipper Barsha Magar said that her teammates were ready to compete against the best and pull off major upsets.

Sankata are also in the list of the clubs that want to end the hype of departmental clubs.

Fresh from lifting the 4th Ratna Priya Cup in Chitwan on Monday, Sankata have signed four foreigners to strengthen their squad. Further, the overseas players with Sankata are not to be overlooked.

“Of the four foreign signings, we have Win Theingi Tun, skipper of the Myanmar national team,” said Rabindra Silakar, head coach of Sankata. “We also have a national team player from Mozambique and two players, a centre back and a midfielder, who have played in the underage national team of Ghana.”

Sankata, one of the oldest clubs of Nepal, have been investing in women’s football for a couple of years now. They got relegated from the Women’s League last season and got back after performing well in the qualifier.

“And we will have three of our academy players debut in the top-tier,” said Silakar. “Our goal is to finish in the top five this season, possibly as one of the top three teams.”

Bagmati Youth Club, the club that raised eyebrows in the previous season, are also expecting a better performance. “We hope to do better than last season,” said Nirajan Karki, Bagmati’s team manager. “The team has been training in a closed camp for a month and will arrive in Kathmandu on Thursday.”

Bagmati are also being guided by Sunil Shrestha, head coach of Jawalakhel Youth Club, an A-Division club. “Coach Sunil will, however, not be present at the touchline. Assistant coach Sonam Lama will be managing the team during the matches,” Karki added.

There were no club representatives available during the pre-tournament press conference for NRT, Jhapa and RS Pokhara.

Likewise, ANFA officials were also not present to answer the concerns related to the tournament’s preparation, dispute regarding Rapti’s participation and other aspects, citing the strike by A Division clubs outside the ANFA Complex since Tuesday.

Several of the A Division clubs’ representatives were sighted continuing their sit-in outside ANFA, demanding a proper and systematic process for the A Division League.