Cash rewards

It's wonderful that ANFA is offering Rs. 10,000 per month for life to National Team players if they win the SAFF Cup. It's a great potential bonus for the players and their families, but at the end of the day that is all it is - a bonus.

Anyone who thinks money will drive our players to play harder or better is fooling themselves, because guess what? Our players will give it their best no matter what!!!

An athletes performance  is the output of all the training and coaching (input) they received in their life. If Nepal wins the SAFF Cup it will be because our players received better training and coaching from the beginning of their careers than our opponents. If we fare poorly it will be because the training and coaching wasn't good enough. End of story.

See follow-up article CashRewards 2.0

Social Welfare Sports Centre

When I am in Nepal I try my best to visit as many grassroots sports programs across the country as possible. The only problem is that there are really not that many around. An NGO-Foreign Aid-Centralized Government culture has unfortunately created an environment where people have become used to putting their hands out opposed to getting their hands dirty. Thus one can basically count on two hands the organized grassroots sports programs that exist in the country.

Luckily, through the power of Facebook, I was able to connect with the team running a grassroots football program in the Nayabazaar Dhara neighborhood of Kathmandu and paid them a visit on my most recent trip to Nepal.

On reaching the open sandlot where the unconventionally named club – Social Welfare Sports Centre (SWSC) conducts training, I was pleasantly surprised to see full blown youth football training for multiple age groups – and no it was not the “A FIFA Master/ former AFC official is coming to pay us a visit, so let’s quickly put something together to impress him” variety either. This was a legit grassroots program.

SWSC was established by seven teenage friends in 1999 as a way to provide youths in and around Nayabazaar Dhara a diversion to the distractions of the streets. They hoped to achieve this by providing football training which would help keep kids away from mischief.

Eleven years on SWSC is as active as ever: conducting under-12 and under-16 training for neighborhood kids, organizing small sided football tournaments and also through community outreach programs like providing safe drinking water, immunization drives, and assisting local children with school tuition and in garnering scholarships.

SWSC has also made a national impact in football. Several top division football players including Rupesh KC (HSC), Nabin Maharjan (MMC), and Nirajan Shrestha (UYC) are alumni of the club’s youth training setup. Their senior team recently was promoted to the Martyrs League ‘C’ division and just missed out on qualifying for the ‘B’ division, though they will still participate in the national ‘C’ division tournament as a result of their strong showing in the league.

Irrespective of the on-field successes, SWSC officials assert that the club’s greatest accomplishment has been providing an alternative to the drug and gang culture which many youths in Kathmandu gravitate to as a result of disillusionment or boredom. One club representative commented that in Nayabazaar Dhara one can basically separate the disciplined boys from the wayward ones based on who attends football training.

A grassroots sports program that not only has survived, but thrives after nearly a dozen years is a rarity in Nepal. SWSC’s success lies in the fact that along with football training, they also groom their trainees to take on leadership roles in the club. Thus all of the current SWSC Executive Board members, now in their late teens or twenties, were one time football trainees at the club.

SWSC has also been able to muster considerable goodwill from the local community. As an example a local sporting goods manufacturer Wild Sports has sponsored all the club’s match and training kits. On the other hand, despite their achievements, SWSC receives virtually no support from national institutions, including ANFA. Unlike many clubs and projects, SWSC has little political clout and no famous personality in their ranks thus assisting such a club is generally considered a waste of resources for politically driven organizations. Why help a club that offers no votes or short-term financial leverage?

Fortunately, with the explosion of Nepali sports blogs, websites and Facebook pages, SWSC’s story is no longer hidden. They have recently garnered prominent attention on GoalNepal and have made a name for themselves amongst Nepali football fans on Facebook. With their new found exposure, formidable performances in the Martyrs League and well developed club structures, one can expect to hear much more from SWSC in the near future.

T-Shirts

A few years back ANFA Technical Director Bhim Thapa and I organized a youth football coaching course for Biratnagar Sports Club (BSC). Only a handful of the dozens of club officials we invited for the Opening Ceremony bothered to show-up. We gave them all a Biratnagar Sports Club t-shirt as a souvenir gift.

A couple of days later, we were surprised to see how packed the Closing Ceremony was - especially as it was supposed to be a low key affair and we had only formally invited a few District FA officials. It turns out everyone was there in hopes of getting a free BSC t-shirt! Unfortunately for them we had already given away our extra t-shirts to the local staff (security guards, janitors, etc.) who worked at the school where we conducted the coaching program.

Refusing to take no for an answer, one club official pleaded with me in very broken English for a t-shirt. I guess he thought I would be more inclined to give him something if he spoke to me in my first language. Another official even asked if he could have the BSC shirt I was wearing! Perhaps if I had a six pack like John Abraham I might have considered taking off the shirt and literally flexing my muscles, but unfortunately I'm probably in worse shape than Govinda.

The irony of it all? The club officials, especially from the far off villages, probably spent altogether around 500 Rupees to attend the Closing Ceremony. The BSC t-shirts cost 200 Rupees a piece!

Teams versus Clubs

Assembling a group of 15-20 very talented players and winning trophies makes you a great team. Having a proper club office, staff, academy, training facility (or regular access to one), merchandising, supporters club and community outreach makes you a great club.

We have lots of football teams in Nepal but very few clubs. The challenge for our football officials is to transform their teams into proper clubs.

I met many team/club officials during my most recent visit to Nepal and the one question I kept asking them was if FIFA President Sepp Blatter were to come to Nepal and visit your club, what would you show him? Save Bansbari, Himalayan Sherpa and a few others, most teams would have little to present other than a dusty office and a few rusty trophies.

Teach a man to fish

I had been very hands-on in two different sports projects in Nepal. There are several other projects where I am not actively involved, but offer advice and consulting.

As it turns out, the projects that I provide only advice to are progressing far better than the ones I was regularly involved in. The reason? The projects in which I was active in had come to rely on me like the Government of Nepal relies on foreign aid! I helped them find sponsors, secure equipment and market themselves. Unfortunately, instead of learning from me they became dependent on me, therefore nothing got done unless I was involved or I barked some orders.

On the other hand, the projects where I only provide consulting look at me as a knowledge resource and not as an NGO. The projects are eager to learn from me and work among themselves to implement some of the ideas I share with them. They know they will only get a blueprint and must be prepared to do all the heavy lifting.

The moral of my experience: Don’t give a man fish, teach him how to catch some.