SPORTS UPDATE: ‘A’ division league to start from Nov 20 winner to get Rs 7.5m

Nov 17, 2012

‘A’ division league to start from Nov 20 winner to get Rs 7.5m

The Martyrs’ Memorial Red Bull ‘A’ Division League, starting at the Dashrath stadium from November 20 has a total cash prize of Rs 10.47 million to be won, with the winner of the league taking home Rs 75 Lakhs, the All Nepal Football Association (Anfa) said at a press meet on Friday.

The league will feature 16 Kathmandu-based top-flight teams battling out for the top honor that also has five motorcycles to be won in different individual award categories. The prize money for the winning team is almost twice the amount the association had awarded in the previous season.

According to ANFA, there will be a total of 96 matches, with two matches taking place in a day. A club will be required to play 15 matches in the first round, from where a total of eight teams will qualify for the next round, while the bottom two teams out of the total 16 teams will be relegated to the second division.

It is not necessary that there will be exactly eight teams in next round. The number can be reduced to six if the teams fail to meet certain criteria set by the football association. The criteria: there should not be more than 21 points difference between the top team in the first round and the seventh and eighth team. In case that happens, there will be just six teams playing in the next round. The football association said the new set of rule is aimed at averting the much rampant match fixings seen in the game in recent years.

The second round is where the real competition takes place. The qualified teams will have to play seven matches each between them and the winners of the this round will be crowned the champions of the league and will also get a chance to represent the country in the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) President Cup, a club-level championship for the third-tier

Ganesh Thapa on the press Conference said the football association would have zero tolerance over match-fixing cases. Stricter disciplinary actions are other changes that are about to be introduced from this tournament.

A fine of Rs 10,000 has been fixed to a club conceding more than five yellow cards in a game. In the same way, a club conceding two red cards in a game will be slapped a fine of Rs 10,000.

The football association is also introducing lenient rules regarding the suspension of a player through yellow cards. Instead of suspending a player for a game for two yellow cards, they have decided to take the action on three yellow cards. The football association believes this move will help clubs during crucial matches.

Thapa also added that they had been forced to revert to the earlier module of the league instead of the nation-wide league introduced last year due to the mismatch between valley based teams and the ones from outside Kathmandu.

The current module is the one practiced for ages in the football association. He said that there is still a lot to be done outside the valley in order to make the teams competitive for the league and ANFA is working towards that end.Defending champions Nepal Police Club and Madhyapur Youth will raise the curtains of the championship that will go on till January 10. The date of next round is yet to be fixed.

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Prize Money List

First Prize- Rs 7.5 million

Second Prize- Rs 3.5 million

Third Prize- Rs 1.5 million

Fourth Prize- Rs 700,000

Fifth Prize- Rs 150,000

Sixth Prize- Rs 150,000

Seventh Prize- Rs 100,000

Eight Prize- Rs 100,000

Fair Play- Rs 100,000

Five motorcycles in five different individual categories as Best Goalkeeper, Best Defender, Best Midfielder, best Striker and Best Coach.

Participating Teams