sport.wikisort.org - Team

The Nepal women's national football team is controlled by the All Nepal Football Association and represents Nepal in women's international football competitions. The Women's Football Department is 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.

This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2018)

Nepal
नेपाल राष्ट्रिय महिला फुटबल टिम

Nickname(s)	Nepali Chelis
Association	All Nepal Football Association
Confederation	AFC (Asia)
Sub-confederation	SAFF (South Asia)
Head coach	Kumar Thapa
Captain	Renuka Nagarkoti[1]
Most caps	Niru Thapa (41)
Top scorer	Sabitra Bhandari (40)
Home stadium	Various
FIFA code	NEP
First colours Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current	103 1 (13 October 2022)[2]
Highest	92 (December 2009)
Lowest	128 (August 2012)
First international
Nepal 0–1 Hong Kong  (Hong Kong; 14 December 1986)
Biggest win
Nepal 13–0 Afghanistan  (Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh; 14 December 2010)
Biggest defeat
Japan 14–0 Nepal    (Hong Kong; 24 December 1989)  Japan 14–0 Nepal (Barotac Nuevo, Philippines; 12 November 1999)
Asian Cup
Appearances	3 (first in 1986)
Best result	Group stage (1986, 1989, 1999)
SAFF Championship
Appearances	6 (first in 2010)
Best result	Runners-up (2010, 2012, 2014, 2019,2022)
Medal record SAFF Women's Championship 2010 Bangladesh 2012 Sri Lanka 2014 Pakistan 2019 Nepal 2022 Nepal South Asian Games 2010 Dhaka Team 2016 Guwahati & Shillong Team 2019 Kathmandu & Pokhara Team

History

This section does not cite any sources. (October 2018)

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.[3]

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.[4]

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.[5] 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 had performed exceedingly well internationally. 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 regeneration since 2010, the women's side rose 22 places in the FIFA ranking.[6]

Team image

Nicknames

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

Home stadium

The team's home ground are various around the nation also shared with the Nepal national football team at the Dasarath Rangasala Stadium, a multi-purpose stadium in central Kathmandu, Nepal. Holding 25,000 spectators, of which 5,000 seated, it is the biggest stadium in Nepal. It is named after Dashrath Chand, one of the martyrs of Nepal. 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

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

Legend

  Win   Draw   Lose   Fixture

2021

2022

All-time results

As of 19 September 2022

counted for the FIFA A-level matches only.

Nations	First played	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Afghanistan	2010	2	2	0	0	20	1	+19
Bangladesh	2010	6	5	1	1	13	4	+9
Bhutan	2014	4	4	0	0	21	0	+21
Hong Kong	1986	3	0	1	2	0	4	−4
India	2010	15	2	2	11	9	36	−27
Indonesia	1986	3	1	0	2	2	15	−13
Iran	2019	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3
Japan	1989	2	0	0	2	0	28	−28
Kuwait	2013	1	1	0	0	8	0	+8
Kyrgyzstan	2019	1	1	0	0	8	2	+6
Malaysia	2016	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2
Maldives	2010	5	5	0	0	25	0	+25
Myanmar	2018	4	0	1	3	3	10	−7
Pakistan	2010	4	4	0	0	29	0	+29
Philippines	1999	2	0	0	2	1	7	−6
Qatar	2013	2	2	0	0	9	0	+9
Sri Lanka	2010	7	7	0	0	24	0	+24
Tajikistan	2019	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1
Thailand	1986	2	0	0	2	0	10	−10
Uzbekistan	1999	3	0	0	3	3	11	−8
Total	1986	68	36	4	28	181	128	+53

Coaching staff and team officials

As of February 2021

Head Coach	Kumar Thapa[7]
Manager	Pema Dolma Lama
Assistant coach	Aruna Gurung
Goalkeeping coach	Ashmita Khawas
Team physio	Navina Shrestha
Technical official	Subash Neupane

Players

Current squad

• The following players were named on for the 2020 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Second round) on 3 April 2019.[8]

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
16	1GK	Anjila Tumbapo Subba	(1996-05-28) 28 May 1996 (age 26)	20	0	APF Club
20	1GK	Anjana Rana Magar	(2002-01-17) 17 January 2002 (age 20)	4	0	Nepal Army Club
22	1GK	Usha Nath	(2001-02-02) 2 February 2001 (age 21)	0	0	Nepal Police Club
15	2DF	Man Maya Limbu	(1992-02-19) 19 February 1992 (age 30)	28	0	APF Club
3	2DF	Punam Jargha Magar	(1993-06-27) 27 June 1993 (age 29)	26	1	Nepal Army Club
6	2DF	Hira Kumari Bhujel	(1995-12-26) 26 December 1995 (age 26)	25	1	APF Club
12	2DF	Gita Rana	(1996-09-21) 21 September 1996 (age 26)	21	0	APF Club
5	2DF	Amrita Jaishi	age= (1994-10-15) 15 October 1994 (age 28)	19	0	Nepal Police Club
2	2DF	Kabita Dhimal	age= (1990-02-12) 12 February 1990 (age 32)	2	0	Nepal Army Club
23	2DF	Puja Rana	(2001-03-28) 28 March 2001 (age 21)	1	0	Nepal Army Club
19	3MF	Dipa Rai	(1990-05-03) 3 May 1990 (age 32)	27	0	Nepal Army Club
7	3MF	Renuka Nagarkote	(1995-04-16) 16 April 1995 (age 27)	27	0	APF Club
11	3MF	Anita Basnet	(1994-12-27) 27 December 1994 (age 27)	26	4	Sethu FC
18	3MF	Manjali Kumari Yonjon	(2001-05-10) 10 May 2001 (age 21)	21	4	APF Club
27	3MF	Saru Limbu	(2001-03-04) 4 March 2001 (age 21)	16	0	APF Club
25	3MF	Anita KC	(1997-06-25) 25 June 1997 (age 25)	9	0	APF Club
21	3MF	Sharmila Thapa	(1993-03-18) 18 March 1993 (age 29)	8	2	APF Club
14	4FW	Niru Thapa (captain)	(1990-08-30) 30 August 1990 (age 32)	41	13	Nepal Police Club
9	4FW	Sabitra Bhandari	(1996-05-23) 23 May 1996 (age 26)	40	40	Gokulam Kerala FC
8	4FW	Rekha Paudel	(2002-01-09) 9 January 2002 (age 20)	5	1	APF Club
2	4FW	Sabita Rai	(2002-01-09) 9 January 2002 (age 20)	2	1	APF Club

Notable players

• Rama Singh
• Anu Lama
• Jamuna Gurung
• Sajana Rana
• Sabitra Bhandari
• Lila Lamgade

-Best goalkeeper of the Year 2013, 2014 and 2015

Honours

Regional

• SAFF Women's Championship
  • Runners-up: 2010, 2012, 2014, 2019, 2022

• South Asian Games
  • Runners-up: 2010, 2016, 2019

Other tournaments

• Nadezhda Cup
  • Runners-up: 2019

• Women's Gold Cup
  • Runners-up: 2019

Competitive record

*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

***Red border colour indicates tournament was held on home soil.

FIFA Women's World Cup

FIFA Women's World Cup record
Year	Result	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1991	Did not enter
1995
1999
2003	Withdrew
2007	Did not enter
2011
2015
2019
2023	Did not qualify
2027	To be determined
Total	0/8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

AFC Women's Asian Cup

AFC Women's Asian Cup record
Year	Result	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1975	Did not enter (No team)
1977
1980
1981
1983
1986	Group Stage	3	0	0	3	0	12	−12	0
1989	Group Stage	3	0	0	3	0	25	−25	0
1991	Did not enter
1993
1995
1997
1999	Group Stage	4	0	0	4	1	30	−29	0
2001	Did not enter
2003
2006
2008
2010
2014
2018
2022	Did not qualify
Total	3/20	10	0	0	10	1	67	–66	0

SAFF Women's Championship

SAFF Women's Championship record
Year	Result	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
2010	Runners-up	5	4	0	1	34	1	+33	12
2012	Runners-up	5	4	0	1	24	4	+20	12
2014	Runners-up	5	4	0	1	17	6	+11	12
2016	Semi-final	4	3	0	1	19	3	+16	9
2019	Runners-up	3	2	0	1	7	3	+4	6
2022	TBD
Total	5/5	22	17	0	5	101	17	+84	51

South Asian Games

South Asian Games record[9]
Year	Result	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
2010	Silver	5	3	0	2	17	9	+8	9
2016	Silver	5	3	1	1	9	4	+5	10
2019	Silver	4	2	0	2	4	3	+1	6
2023	TBD
Total	3/3	14	8	1	5	30	16	+14	25

Other tournaments

Host/Year/Tournament Name	Result	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	GD
2019 Women's Gold Cup	Runners-up	4	2	0	2	6	7	–1
2019 Nadezhda Cup	Runners-up	4	2	0	2	11	7	+4

See also

• Sport in Nepal
  • Football in Nepal
    • Women's football in Nepal
• All Nepal Football Association
• Nepal women's national under-23 football team
• Nepal women's national under-20 football team
• Nepal women's national under-17 football team
• Nepal national football team
• Nepal national under-20 football team
• Nepal national under-17 football team
• Nepal at the Asian Games

References

External links

• Official website, the-ANFA.com (in English)

---