Kathmandu: The All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) has announced the postponement of the planned ANFA Cup Football Tournament scheduled to begin on May 3 in Kathmandu, citing technical issues.

In a letter sent to all 14 ‘A’ Division clubs—including Nepal APF Club, Satdobato Youth Club, and Khumaltar Youth Club—ANFA stated that the league cum knockout tournament had been postponed due to technical reasons. 

However, the primary reason behind the postponement was the lack of interest from most ‘A’ Division clubs.

Only four out of the 14 top-tier teams had registered for the tournament by the April 23 deadline set by ANFA. The three departmental teams—Nepal Police Club, Nepal APF Club, and Tribhuvan Army Club—along with Sankata Club were the only ones to confirm participation. 

ANFA had planned to send the tournament winner to represent Nepal in the AFC Challenge League, an annual club competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The winner of the Martyr’s Memorial ‘A’ Division League would have earned automatic qualification for the AFC Challenge League. However, ANFA has not organised the ‘A’ Division League for the past two years.

The cancellation of the ANFA Cup has now cast doubt over Nepal’s participation in the upcoming AFC Challenge League.

Church Boys United Club had represented Nepal in the preliminary rounds of the Challenge Cup last year as the Champions of Martyrs Memorial ‘A’ Division League.

A meeting of nine ‘A’ Division clubs held on April 17 made a collective decision to withdraw from the planned ANFA Cup. The clubs cited several reasons for their decision, including the tournament not being part of the official ANFA calendar, insufficient preparation time, and the delay in initiating the Club Licensing process.