ANFA, CG ink deal for school football tourney

(From left) ANFA President Karma Tsering Sherpa, Chaudhary Group MD Nirvana Chaudhary and Vice-president GP Shah display the logo of Kwik’s Cup in Lalitpur on Tuesday. Photo: THT

Lalitpur, April 30

The All Nepal Football Association and Chaudhary Group today reached an agreement for the Kwik’s Cup Inter-school Football Tournament.

ANFA President Karma Tsering Sherpa and Vice-president of Chaudhary Group GP Shah exchanged the memorandum of understanding at the presence of Chaudhary Group Managing Director Nirvana Chaudhary. The two parties have also agreed to organise the franchise-based Nepal Premier League and they are yet to finalise the details of the tournament.

According to Sherpa, Chaudhary Group will provide the ANFA with Rs 5.5 million to organise the inter-school tournament in 52 districts. The amount will be increased by Rs 500,000 each year and at the end of the five-year contract it will reach to Rs 7.5 million.

In return, Kwik’s — a product of Chaudhary Group — will be the title sponsor of the tournament powered by Rio. “Both Kwik’s and Rio are Nepali products and we hope the association will be beneficial for the overall development of Nepali football,” said Chaudhary, adding that his company would invest in Nepali football for the next five years.

“After cricket, we are now into football and we will keep the sport in priority for at least next five years,” said Chaudhary.

“Chaudhary Group has been associated with many sports disciplines as we believe real development can happen through sports. We are extremely delighted to partner with ANFA as we want to harness and grow much stronger youth for the future,” he added.

ANFA President Sherpa thanked Chaudhary Group for helping them materalise the dream. “The school level tournament is second most important project after grassroots and we had dreamt of conducting the inter-school tournament throughout the country,” he said. “We know the overall development of football is not possible without the development of youth football,” added Sherpa.

Around 1,500 schools will take part in the first phase of the tournament and the winners will qualify for the provincial tournament, informed ANFA General Secretary Indra Man Tuladhar. “In the final phase, 16 school teams selected from the provincial tournaments will fight for the main trophy in the national level event,” said Tuladhar. Top three teams will receive Rs 500,000, Rs 300,000 and Rs 200,000 respectively. The estimated budget of the tournament is Rs 15 million.