Long before sports news was just a click away, finding information on Nepali football - let alone sports in Nepal - was a challenge. Growing up as a massive sports fan, I followed international soccer and all the major North American leagues. But due to my Nepali lineage, I was always curious about the sporting scene in Nepal.
Back in the 1990s, however, that curiosity was difficult to satisfy. The Kathmandu Post was the only Nepali newspaper publishing online, and even then, only one sports story would make it onto their site each day. Reliable information on Nepali football was scarce, scattered across the farthest corners of the internet.
A university experiment turned passion project
When I started university in 1997, I wanted to develop my computer skills and figured that creating a website would be a good way to do so. But on what topic? Then it hit me - why not build something that could help others like me? A dedicated website for Nepali football.
Armed with a book titled Build a Website in 24 Hours, I got to work. Within a day, the Nepal Football Homepage (NFH) was live on Geocities, a free web hosting platform. It wasn’t fancy, but it was the first of its kind—a digital home for Nepali football news.
At first, NFH barely attracted any traffic. Maybe 100 clicks a month, most from international football fans curious about football in far-off places. But soon, opportunities started knocking. International media outlets like Futbol Mundial, FourFourTwo, and Football Asia reached out, interested in covering Nepal’s football scene. They needed local insights, and I was happy to provide them.
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| Screenshot of Nepal Football Homepage via "Wayback Machine" |
Collaboration with Bhakundo.org.np
By the early 2000s, a fan group called the Nepal Football Fan Club launched a rival website, bhakundo.org.np (not to be confused with the current Bhakundo.np social media channels). Since they were based in Nepal, they had far better access to information than I did from halfway across the world. Instead of competing, I saw an opportunity to join forces? And so, Nepal Football Homepage was absorbed into bhakundo.org.np.
That collaboration lasted until around 2004, when GoalNepal.com came onto the scene, providing real-time, hourly updates on Nepali football. At that point, I knew the landscape had evolved, and it was best to pass the mantle to a platform that could deliver the level of coverage the sport deserved.
A digital footprint that opened doors
What started as a simple university project turned into something much bigger. Through NFH and bhakundo.org.np, I was able to connect with people across the Nepali football ecosystem - players, officials, clubs, media, and fans alike. That early digital footprint ultimately led me to be involved in Nepali football in other ways - at the club, youth, and grassroots levels.
Looking back, it’s fascinating to see how a small experiment in web development became Nepal’s first dedicated sports website - and furthermore, launched my career in the global sports industry.
