Nepal Government out of touch

Photo taken from Himalayan Times

ANFA needs to be congratulated for convincing the Government of Nepal in awarding cash prizes of Rs. 50,000 to each player on the Nepal National teams (mens and womens) that qualified for the AFC Challenge Cup finals and finished 2nd in the SAFF Womens Football Championship. That is a massive amount of money for essentially trivial accomplishments.

Nepal's Mens National Team has qualified for the final round of the AFC Challenge Cup before, so this by no means is a historic feat. To qualify they beat Afganistan, drew against Sri Lanka and lost to North Korea. Nothing spectacular there either, though ironically the 0-1 loss to North Korea, a FIFA World Cup participant, was probably the the most impressive result out of the three.

Nepal's Womens National Team finished second to India in the SAFF Womens Football Championship which basically comprised of India and a bunch of Muslim nations (Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, etc.) where womens football is just sprouting.

So basically Nepal Government is giving Rs. 50,000 per player for beating Afghanistan, a country ranked lower than Nepal in the FIFA Rankings and reaching the finals of a virtually non-competitive tournament. As a football fan this is terrific! Well done ANFA! But as a Nepali this is ridiculous and sad. It just confirms how out of touch our government is.

Addendum: Nepal's Judo team bagged a few gold medals at the recent South Asian Judo Championships and Keshari Chaudhary just broke two national records in Athletics. I wonder how much Nepal Goverment is planning to award them? Surely it should be more than Rs. 50,000? (Don't bet on it!)