Kathmandu: Godawari Municipality is set to organise the second edition of the Valley Wide Inter-Municipality Open Godawari Mayor Cup Football Tournament from May 3 to 17 at Tahakhel in Godawari, Lalitpur. 

Organising a press conference in Tripureshwar on Sunday, Godawari Municipality spokesperson Milan Silwal said that they have invited all 21 municipalities of Kathmandu Valley for participation in the tournament. 

“As of now 10 teams have registered for the event. We are trying to ensure participation of all 21 municipalities. The exact number of participating teams will be finalised once the deadline for registration closes on Monday,” said Niraj Bajracharya, the sports coordinator of the Municipality. 

“It is an open tournament and there is no restriction for any player to participate in the tournament, but he must be a resident of the municipality that he is representing,” added Bajrachary.  

The winners of the tournament will get purse of Rs500,000 and the runners up will get Rs300,000 along with trophies and certificates. The fair play team will walk away with Rs50,000. The man-of-the-match of each game will get Rs5000. 

The best goalkeeper, defender, forward, highest scorer, coach and emerging player will also get Rs20,000 apiece along with trophies and certificates. The expected cost of the event is Rs11 million out of which Godawari Municipality will allocate Rs2.5 million and the remaining amount will be collected from sponsors. 

Plans to construct Multi Purpose Stadium

Godawari Mayor Gajendra Maharjan informed that the Municipality was planning to construct a Multi Purpose Stadium and the Council of Minister had allocated 3.5 hectares of forest land. 

“We either need to compensate equivalent area of land that we acquire from the Forest Department or pay compensation. The valuation process of the process is going on and it will finish inside a couple of months. The Detailed Project Report will be undertaken once the valuation is finalised, said Maharjan. 

He added that they were planning to construct a 15,000 capacity stadium as a pride project at Tahakhel, the venue that will host the tournament. Mayor Maharjan added that the football governing body All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) had assured them a fund of US $136,000 for construction.