5. ANFA takes the South West Asian football federation (SWAFF) bait
ANFA has accepted an invitation from Saudi Arabia football federation to discuss the formation of South West Asian football federation (SWAFF) which has been seen as a challenge to AFC to form a new confederation by pooling West Asian and South Asian countries. Earlier this month five federation representatives, including Kushal Das from AIFF, attended the meeting along with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen and Oman from the West Asian block to join the newly formed South-West Asian Football Federation(SWAFF).
Saudi Arabian Football Federation had invited presidents of football associations affiliated with the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) and South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) for a meeting on May 31 to discuss the formation of South West Asian Football Federation (SWAFF).ANFA president has apparently accepted the invitation and has left for Saudi Arabia as future of South Asian Football Federation(SAFF) lurks in uncertainty as India, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are set to move out of SAFF.
Meanwhile All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) has decided to host the Martyrs’ Memorial ‘A’ Division League from September 29 to January 30, for the 2018-19 season after the league was stalled for 4 years due to political upheaval within ANFA followed by the devasting earthquake in 2015 which crippled the stadium infrastructure in Nepal.