Corruption charges deepen crisis in Nepali football amid FIFA suspension

KATHMANDU, Oct 9: Fresh corruption charges against four suspended All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) officials have once again put the governance of Nepali football under scrutiny, amid a FIFA suspension that has barred the country from international competitions over alleged third-party interference. The government has charged the four suspended officials, including President Pankaj Bikram Nembang and General Secretary Kiran Rai, with financial irregularities, fraud, corruption and match-fixing.

The District Government Attorney's Office, Lalitpur, filed the case at the Lalitpur District Court against Nembang, Rai, Treasurer Rabindra Joshi and Accounts Officer Sanjiv Pandey, seeking to recover Rs 9.3 million in alleged losses. Joshi and Pandey are in custody, while Nembang and Rai remain at large.

The case follows an investigation by the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police into alleged financial misconduct within ANFA, including the handling of revenue from an international football match, procurement of sports equipment, distribution of World Cup tickets and a sponsorship agreement. The charges have brought renewed attention to the Nepali football, which has faced allegations of corruption and mismanagement for years.

The latest prosecution comes as ANFA remains suspended by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the sport's global governing body, following a dispute with the National Sports Council (NSC) over the association's governance and electoral process. FIFA suspended ANFA with immediate effect on June 24, 2026, citing what it described as flagrant violations of its statutes through third-party interference.

The suspension bars Nepal's national teams and clubs from international competitions organised by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). ANFA and its members also lose access to FIFA and AFC development programmes, training courses and other benefits during the suspension.

Related story FIFA suspension pushes Nepali football into crisis The dispute arose after the NSC suspended ANFA for three months in March as the association prepared for its election process. Although the suspension was lifted in May, disagreements over the electoral process and amendments to ANFA's statutes continued.

FIFA maintains that national football associations must operate independently of government bodies and has made the lifting of Nepal's suspension conditional on the reversal of the NSC's decisions and the completion of ANFA's electoral process. The developments have exposed a difficult governance question for Nepali football: while allegations of financial wrongdoing have prompted domestic investigation and prosecution, FIFA's rules restrict government intervention in the affairs of its member associations.

The latest allegations also revive memories of the controversy surrounding former ANFA president Ganesh Thapa, one of the most influential figures in Nepali and Asian football for nearly two decades. In November 2015, FIFA's independent Ethics Committee suspended Thapa from all football-related activities for 10 years and fined him 20,000 Swiss francs after finding him guilty of multiple breaches of its ethics code, including bribery and corruption.

FIFA's Appeal Committee rejected his appeal in April 2016 and upheld the 10-year ban, which expired in April 2025. Thapa's case unfolded amid a wider corruption scandal that rocked FIFA and Asian football.