Nepali women footballers are supposedly the happiest bunch of stakeholders after the government, on Friday, revoked the domestic suspension imposed over the All Nepal Football Association.

The National Sports Council (NSC) had suspended the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) for three months from March 25. The reason: ANFA was bulldozing for early elections despite NSC’s request to seek a fresh mandate at the district associations first.

The Pankaj Bikram Nembang-led ANFA tried forcing its way for early elections as the team was backed up by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

Further, FIFA and the AFC kept warning the Nepal government of an international suspension for interfering in ANFA’s activities. The warnings and risk of a FIFA ban got intense after the NSC suspended ANFA.

But the governing body of Nepali sports denied lifting the suspension. The denial continued even after FIFA and the AFC warned the NSC of a ban in a virtual meeting in mid-April.

With the warnings, Nepali women footballers, who are in a closed camp for the SAFF Women’s Championship (May 25 to June 5) in Goa, India, were in a dilemma regarding their participation. The players were concerned because their closed camp targeting the FIFA Series in Thailand on April 11 and 14 was also cancelled within a week after Nepal withdrew following NSC’s suspension.

“We had withdrawn from the FIFA Series due to uncertainty of the do’s and don’ts following suspension from the council,” ANFA spokesperson Suresh Shah said last week. “We have started the closed camp for SAFF as the council said it was not against international participation.”

Still, the players were not guaranteed their participation at the SAFF Women’s Championship despite ANFA and the NSC being on the same boat. It was because of the risk of a FIFA ban.

However, after the government’s decision to revoke ANFA’s suspension, the players are now certain to travel to Goa and lift Nepal women’s first international title.

“The suspension on ANFA has been lifted following a ministerial-level decision today,” Jagadish Parajuli, information officer at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, told the Post.

Sasmit Pokharel, who is the Minister for Education and Sports after a Cabinet reshuffle on Thursday, led the meeting with senior officials of ANFA and the NSC at the ministry on Friday.

“It was in this meeting that the minister ordered to revoke the suspension on ANFA,” Parajuli added.

After the decision, ANFA has started to hold internal discussions regarding several aspects.

“It was a troubling 51 days for ANFA due to state suspension,” Shah told the Post after Friday’s decision. “Now, we will focus on resuming football activities. We will also complete our preparation for Nepal’s participation at the SAFF Women’s Championship.”

Shah also argued that ANFA would soon be resuming the postponed tournaments—the ANFA National League and the Martyr’s Memorial ANFA Women’s League.

Meanwhile, the two tournaments were postponed before the footballing body was suspended. They were postponed after interference from the Department of Immigration over foreign players playing in a Nepali league without specific working visas.

“Today’s meeting did not revolve around ANFA’s suspension,” Shah said. “The overall development of Nepali football was discussed there. And we all have decided to work together to bring back the glorious days of football.”

Shah added that the NSC’s suspension was revoked unconditionally. “ANFA has not been asked to postpone its plans for early elections,” he said. “We will never go against the statutes of FIFA and ANFA.”