FIFA sets another deadline for NSC to revoke ANFA’s suspension

Following continuous third-party interference from government bodies, the All Nepal Football Association has risked FIFA suspension. Many feared the suspension would be announced as early as April 30 during the FIFA Congress. That risk has now been averted. The governing body of Nepali football was slapped with a three-month suspension by the National Sports Council, the governing body of Nepali sports, on March 25. FIFA is holding its 76th Congress in Vancouver, Canada, on April 30. The fourth agenda of the 76th Congress is “suspension or expulsion of a Member Association”. “The Congress may suspend a member association solely at the request of the Council,” reads the FIFA Statutes. The Council is the strategic and oversight body of FIFA. It currently has 37 members—a president, eight vice-presidents and 28 members. But it seems Nepal will not be the member association to be discussed under the agenda in a week. Following NSC’s suspension, FIFA, as well as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), had intervened. Elkhan Mammadov, FIFA’s chief member associations officer, and Vahid Kardany, AFC’s deputy general secretary-member associations, sent a letter to ANFA on April 4. The letter had stated a seven-day deadline for the NSC to revoke its suspension on ANFA. But it went unheard. “If the NSC fail to cancel or annul the aforementioned decision … the matter will be submitted to the FIFA Council for the immediate suspension of ANFA,” the April 4 letter had warned. Afte