Rising from rubble, Nepal football hopes to find feet

The Dasarath Stadium in Kathmandu turned into a makeshift refuge for earthquake survivors. (Source: Ayush Khadka/ANFA)

Early in the morning of April 25, Jack Stefanowski sat on his breakfast table, charting a way forward for Nepal’s football team. Later in the day, the Polish-American coach of Nepal would set off on his weekend routine — scouting players in the local league. He was also scheduled to meet a few All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) officials.

Nepal was still coming to terms with the defeat suffered at the hands of India in a two-legged 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup joint qualifier. Given the nature of the qualification process, the result meant Nepal would not be able to play top flight football for the next four years. A plan had to be put in place to ensure development of the domestic game continued despite this setback.

Then, the earth shook. And suddenly, football seemed meaningless. The main football stadium was damaged, a senior federation official was among the deceased and whereabouts of the players was unknown. For the ensuing two weeks, Stefanowski and the ANFA would make frantic calls to the players. But those were just to ensure they were safe. Fortunately, they all were.

“None of the players suffered any physical injuries, but mentally they were scarred like any other person,” ANFA’s media officer Ayush Khadka says over phone from Kathmandu. “The earthquake has destroyed everything we had. The only international stadium we had is severely damaged.”

On Friday evening, the Nepal team landed in Pune for a friendly match that will be played at the Balewadi Sports Complex on August 31. It’ll be their first match since the deadly tremors, which claimed nearly 10,000 lives. The last time they had stepped on a football field — also against India in March — Nepal had put up a dogged performance. But after the earthquake, football, as one would expect, was the farthest thing on anyone’s minds. Today, the only international stadium in Nepal is in ruins. It became a makeshift refuge for displaced survivors of the quakes. The domestic league is indefinitely suspended and the players, most belonging to Nepal Army and Police, immersed themselves in rescue operations.

The 40-year-old Stefanowski parted ways with Nepal after his contract expired in May. Nepal appointed Belgian Patrick Aussems as his successor earlier this week, leaving hardly any time for him to prepare the team for Monday’s friendly against India.

After months of rescue work, the players gathered at ANFA’s training centre in Kathmandu for a month-long camp even as they try to rebuild the football set-up in the country. “The government has planned reconstruction for Dasarath Stadium. It’ll take a lot of time because there are a lot of important things like school, hospitals that need attention,” Khadka says.

The ANFA hopes the friendly will go a long way in getting football back on track in Nepal. “The players are strong mentally. They have the urge to do something and do it better and hopefully, this friendly will be a starting point to achieving that,” Khadka says.