Nepal women's national football team explained

Type:Women
Nepal
Badge:Nepal football national team logo.png
Badge Size:170px
Nickname:Nepali Chelis
Association:All Nepal Football Association
Sub-Confederation:SAFF (South Asia)
Confederation:AFC (Asia)
Coach:Rajendra Tamang
Captain:Anjila Tumbapo Subba
Most Caps:Sabitra Bhandari (46)
Top Scorer:Sabitra Bhandari (53)
Home Stadium:Various
Fifa Trigramme:NEP
Fifa Max:91
Fifa Max Date:December 2017
Fifa Min:119
Fifa Min Date:September 2015
Pattern La1:_eng18a
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Leftarm1:E80000
Body1:D50000
Rightarm1:E80000
Shorts1:D50000
Socks1:D50000
Pattern La2:_frank18h
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First Game: 0–1
(Hong Kong; 14 December 1986)
Largest Win: 13–0
Largest Loss: 14–0 Nepal
(Hong Kong; 24 December 1989)
14–0 Nepal
Regional Name:Asian Cup
Regional Cup Apps:3
Regional Cup First:1986
Regional Cup Best:Group stage (1986, 1989, 1999)
2Ndregional Name:SAFF Championship
2Ndregional Cup Apps:6
2Ndregional Cup First:2010
2Ndregional Cup Best:Runners-up (2010, 2012, 2014, 2019,2022)
Medaltemplates-Expand:yes

The Nepal women's national football team is controlled by the All Nepal Football Association and represents Nepal in international women's football competitions. The Women's Football Department has been developed to control and manage the women's football activities. The official motto of women's football in Nepal is "Football for Change". It is a member of the Asian Football Confederation and the South Asian Football Federation and has yet to qualify for the World Cup.

History

Formation

Nepal formed a women's national team in the mid-1980s and debuted in the 1986 AFC Women's Championship. During the start of the tournament, Nepal played their first official match against Hong Kong (14 December 1986), which they lost with a score of 1–0. Nepal women's side also participated in the final three phases of the Asian Cup in 1986, 1989 and 1999, never going beyond the group stages. Nepal proved to be in a difficult group with former champions Thailand, alongside Indonesia and Hong Kong, two relatively strong teams. As a result, Nepal had lost all three matches, two of them jarringly, while the match against Hong Kong proved to be a steady profit. In 1989 Nepal played again in the championship, against the same opponents, except that Thailand was substituted against Japan. This resulted in meagre points for Nepal, who lost every game by a wide margin, the smallest 0–3 against Hong Kong.

Nepal's FIFA First Vice President was Kamal Thapa. Nepal's first woman captain was Rama Singh when the Nepali women's football team was created, Kamal Thapa was the president of the All Nepal Football Association. Singh, who represented the Bagmati team, started playing in 1985. The second national team's captain was Kamala Hirachan who also represented the Gandaki team and the third women captain was Meera Chaudhary who represented Naryani team. Singh later became the first newsreader in Nepali television history, and Chaudhary has held a rank of DSP in Nepal police. The first female international goal scorer of Nepal is Pema Dolma Lama, who scored a goal against Uzbekistan at the 1999 AFC Women's Championship held in Philippines.

Crisis years

As a result of the democracy uprising in 1990, there was an eight-year period without a women's national team. This negatively affected player recruitment, but nevertheless Nepal soon returned to international football during the Women's Asian Cup in 1999. Despite their triumphant return, the results were about the same as before the eight-year hiatus. The championship ended in the group-stage with Japan, Thailand, Uzbekistan and the Philippines, where Nepal lost all four games. Since then, Nepal has not appeared in the Women's Asian cup. Former men's national team technical director, Holger Obermann served as the technical advisor for the Chelis during their 1999 campaign.[1]

However, this did not mean that Nepal had not played football since 1999. The Mangladevi League, roughly a month-long women's football tourney, was set up trying to bring in women football players across the country. It was played in early 2000, in a league-cum-knockout basis. It was an initiative taken by a single person, but sadly discontinued after a year.[2]

Nepal had a long period without matches, but they impressed many in the South Asian Games in 2010, where they reached the final after beating several opponents by a wide margin. In the finals they lost narrowly 1–3 against the big favorite India. This gave the national team a much needed recognition. The 11th South Asian Games also were the first to host a women's football event as well.[3] In the opening match of the 2010 South Asian Games, Nepal women's U23 faced hosts Bangladesh, where they won with a single goal. The second match against Sri Lanka proved to be more illustrious as victory came in the form of 8 goals while holding a clean sheet. However, the scoring spree was short lived as the third group-stage match against India saw a heavy 0–5 loss. Nevertheless, Nepal had done enough to qualify for the second round (semi finals) against Pakistan which they won with a resounding 7–0 scoreline. This meant that Nepal would face a difficult rematch against India in the finals, although any result would ensure a medal at the very least for the Chelis. Despite finally ending the scoring drought against India, the game was lost 1–3. Despite putting on a valiant performance, the Chelis returned home with a silver medal which came to the delight of many supporters of Nepali football due to the rarity of the occasion.

Regeneration

The regeneration of women's football in Nepal was first realised when after the national leagues were reinstated in 2009. The women's national team prior to this hadn't played an international game for 5 years. Nevertheless, the Chelis began training for two upcoming major international tournaments in the following year. In 2010, Nepali women footballers returned with two runner-up trophies, one from the 11th South Asian Games, and the other from the SAFF Women's Football Championship. Despite limited training, resources and less attention compared to the men's team, the women's team performed exceedingly well. In the South Asian Games, they defeated Sri Lanka 8–0, and in SAFF they thrashed Afghanistan 13–0 and Pakistan 11–0. Striker Anu Lama was the star of SAFF, scoring three hat-tricks to be declared the best player of the tournament. However, the team was defeated 0–5 by India in the SAG final, but it was a much more closely fought match when they lost 0–1 to the same team in the SAFF final recently.

Following the team's 2010 regeneration, the women's side's FIFA ranking rose by 22 places.[4]

Team image

Nicknames

The Nepal women's national football team has also been known as the "Nepali Chelis".

Home stadium

See main article: Dasarath Rangasala Stadium. The team's home stadium is the Dasarath Rangasala Stadium, a multi-purpose stadium in central Kathmandu. It is shared with the Nepal men's national football team. Holding 25,000 spectators, of which 5,000 seated, the Dasarath Rangasala is the biggest stadium in Nepal. It is named after Dashrath Chand, one of Nepal's martyrs. Prior to the 2013 SAFF Championship in Nepal, the Dasarath Rangasala underwent heavy renovation that saw several improvements such as the expansion of seats from 20,000 to 25,000.

Results and fixtures

See main article: Nepal women's national football team results.

See also: 2021 in association football, 2021 in sports and FIFA International Match Calendar.

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

Legend

2024

All-time results

counted for the FIFA A-level matches only.
NationsFirst playedPWDLGFGAGDConfederation
20102200201+19
201012651177+10
20144400230+23
1986301204−4
20101724111138−27
19863102215−13
2019110030+3
2024110050+5
19893003036−36
20241010220
2013110080+8
2019110082+6
2024110021+1
2016311135−2
20105500250+25
20184013310−7
20104400290+29
2024110040+4
1999200217−6
2013220090+9
20108800300+30
2024110041+3
2019110010+1
19862002010−10
19993003311−8
2023300319−8
Total198689431333214159+55

Coaching staff and team officials

As of 3 June 2024

Team Manager Bindra Dewan
Head coach Rajendra Tamang
Assistant coach Bhagwati Thapa
Goalkeeping coach Binod Maharjan
Team doctor Dr. Jyoti Rai
Team physio Nabina Shrestha Baidya

Players

Current squad

On 29 May 2024 the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) has called up 30 players for training. The Four Nations Cup will take place in Lebanon from June 6 to June 16.

Recent call-ups

The following footballers were part of a national selection in the past twelve months, but are not part of the current squad.

INJ Withdrew due to injury
PRE Preliminary squad / standby
RET Retired from the national team
SUS Serving suspension
WD Player withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue.

Notable players

Honours

Regional

Competitive record

FIFA Women's World Cup

FIFA Women's World Cup record
YearResult
Did not enter
1995
Withdrew
Did not enter
2019
Did not qualify
2027To be determined
Total0/800000000

Olympic Games

Summer Olympics record
YearRoundGPWDLGFGAGD
1996
to 2004
Did not enter
2008Did not qualify
2012
2016
2020
2024
2028To be determined
2032
Total0/80000000

AFC Women's Asian Cup

AFC Women's Asian Cup record
YearResult
Did not enter (No team)
Group Stage 3003012−120
Group Stage 3003025−250
Did not enter
Group Stage 4004130−290
Did not enter
2010
2018
Did not qualify
To be determined
Total3/20100010167-660

SAFF Women's Championship

SAFF Women's Championship
YearResult
2010Runners-up5401341+3312
2012Runners-up5401244+2012
2014Runners-up5401176+1112
2016Semi Final4301193+169
2019Runners-up4301113+89
2022Runners-up4301121+119
2024
Total7/727210611718+9963

South Asian Games

South Asian Games record[5]
YearResult
5302179+89
531194+510
420243+16
2024TBD
Total3/3148153016+1425

WAFF Women's Championship

WAFF Women's Championship
YearResult
2024Runners-up5410174+13
Total1/15410174+13

Other tournaments

Host/Year/Tournament NameResult
Runners-up420267–1
2019 Nadezhda CupRunners-up4202117+4

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: NFH – Archived News. Angelfire. 4 March 2016.
  2. Web site: Off-side: In support of the Nepali women footballers. The Kathmandu Post. 12 August 2014.
  3. News: Nepali football – Sportsworld. Richardson. Andy. 5 March 2009. Al-Jazeera Sportsworld. 4 January 2016. YouTube.
  4. Web site: FIFA Rankings Nepal Women's National Team. https://web.archive.org/web/20070709072825/http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=nep/ranking/gender=f/index.html. dead. July 9, 2007. 24 February 2014.
  5. Web site: South Asian Federation Games (Women's Tournament) . 1 October 2018 . . 18 February 2016.