| Biswo |
Posted
on 23-Feb-01 11:46 AM
People say the best soccer Nepal ever played was in its loss
against Kuwait in the last Delhi Asiad(1982).We lost to them by
1-3, but we played very well, we scored first, and most of all,
we were playing against mighty Asian team that had experience of
playing in World Cup finals.
Alas,we never became better than that. The next brillinat moment
was Sydney Olympic Qualifiers, where Nepal beat both Phillipines,
and Hongkong, conceded Malaysia a draw in a bitterly fought
first round game, and lost to Japan by 'mere' 3-0.Good deal.
When Hongkong lost to Nepal, a report about development of
Nepalese football was shown all over mainland China in CCTV,
and the emphasis of the documentary was on the football school
where a few students were studying and honing their dexterity
simultaneously.
As it happens in Nepal, when a sector starts developing itself,
government tries to regulate(!) it.Now , the government has
intervened in bickering factions of football in Nepal, recognizing
ANFA(led by Gita Rana) over ANFA(led by Kamal Thapa). Our players
are divided in this politics now, and the first victims are the
citizens of Nepal: the scheduled venue for world cup qualifiers
(2002 Japan and Korea) has been changed from KTM to Kazaksthan.
In the latest twist of the incidents, ANFA has awarded $4,50,000
to Kamal Thapa's ANFA for furthering goal project.Btw, in this
process, Nepal is ranked #168(India #122, Hongkong #123, Bangladesh #144, Sri Lanka #151, Maldives #154 etc) now.In 1994,
Nepal was ranked #124th. So far , so good, huh?
May be one day ,our goalkeeper pulls off stunning saves in
international arena, our strikers score goals and make us proud,
but looks like such days are obviously not in the near future.
There is only politics rightnow there!
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