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The Himalayan Republic has been struggling to find its footing in Asian football since its foundation in 1951. The game in Nepal started off as an elite game played between the King’s XI and the Prime Minister’s XI.
It was only in the later stages, with its affliation to FIFA in 1970, that the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) brought in organized football through various youth development schemes and competitions.
Currently, ANFA organizes a 12 team league which lasts about 3 months every year. Manang Marsyangdi has been a dominating force in the local scene.
Nepal has competed in qualifications for the FIFA World Cup?since 1986 missing just one campaign. However, they have yet to come close to achieving qualification. Their participation in the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan qualification rounds and the qualification for the 2004 Asian Cup China were the last two major events that Nepal competed in.
Results though were far from encouraging. Although they recorded wins against Macao, their other results showed the team still requires plenty of work at the grassroots. Thus, Nepal has chosen not to participate in the preliminaries for Germany '06. The time to re-organise and improve results slowly may be just what the side needs in four years time.
After all, Nepal has shown the potential when they were twice crowned champions in the South Asian Federation Games (1984, 1993).
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