Church Boys United: Well deserved winners

The  recently concluded Martyr's Memorial ‘A’ Division League football tournament  marked with an endless array of  twists and turns will be remembered for a long time.

The competition panned out like  a suspense movie,keeping football  enthusiasts scratching their heads and guessing all the way to  the end.

The end result  turned  out to be a big surprise. Newly promoted Church Boys United based in Balkumari in Lalitpur district made history by becoming the  league champions.

Since they made it  to C-Division in 2019, they have not looked back.It has been a  remarkable success story for the winners.

In 2021  and  2022 they crowned themselves  C- Division and  B- Division champions respectively. Now they have made it three in a row by lifting the top-flight domestic league  A -Division title.

After Manang Marshyangdi Club,they have become the only second team to accomplish the  unprecedented feat. 

The  new champions coached by former international player  and  men’s national team coach Bal Kumar Maharjhan were worthy title winners.

The  new champions got rewarded  for their determined  collective efforts, commitment. persistence,sheer  hard work  and winning mentality,

Despite trailing front runners Jawalakhel Youth Club (JYC) for the most part,they never lost ground and  managed to keep themselves within striking distance.

When the front runners stumbled,they cashed in on the advantage and kept  their  title chase  relevant by winning and drawing key matches when it mattered most. 

They reached  the finish line atop the league standings, which ultimately  earned them the championship title.

Congratulations,Church  Boys United for the incredible success!You  fully deserved it.

In retrospect,the competition was a topsy  turvy affair with an unexpected  conclusion and  relegation drama aplenty.

Such was the uncertainty  that  it came down to the last few matches  to decide the relegation fate of teams.

The league was played  in thirteen rounds in three venues.After every round of the competition,the teams’ fortunes and standings  dramatically fluctuated. As a result,the race to the finish was wide open.

It was quite a surprise to see  the big guns in the likes of  Machhindra Football Club(MFC),Three Star Club(TSC), Manang Marshyangdi Club(MMC), Nepal Army Football Club and Nepal Police Football Club  struggle and bite the dust.

They underperformed  by their standards and looked a pale shadow of their former. MMC and TSC at some point in the competition had their relegation  nightmare moments and  barely managed to survive.

Likewise,Nepal Police  dangerously languished in the relegation zone for a long spell  of time.

 

However,they fought back with a strong performance in the final stages and climbed to an amazing  third place finish in the league.

Defending champions MFC paid dearly for their inconsistency but managed to finish the league engagement in second place.

Instead  of  Church Boys United, MFC will represent Nepal in the AFC Cup because the former is sans  the AFC Club license,a mandatory requirement to participate in the tournament.

JYC  made a hash of a golden opportunity to win the league title.They were atop the leaderboard for a considerable period of time and  seemed destined for league glory, but they let the chance slip by and finished a disappointing 4th.

The rest of the field that  finished in  mid-table or bottom of the table must deal with the disappointment of performing  poorly and try out new actions to get improved results moving forward.

Looking back at the league standings midway through, both FC Khumaltar and  APF FC were cruising along and were comfortably placed above the relegation zone.

Contrary to expectations,they faltered badly in the closing stages with  the relegation axe falling on them at the end.

The  relegation of  APF FC, known for its  consistent performance in domestic tournaments was a shocker.

Foreign players' presence in the league was significant. With the exception of Nepal Army and Nepal Police, every team had foreign players on its roster.

Not surprisingly, the majority of players  were from the African continent- Cameroon,Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria,Lesotho,Togo, Male  and Chad. Additionally, there were players from India and Uzbekistan  also. I might have missed out a few names. Excuse me for  that.

Foreign players dominated the scoring honors. MFC’s  Nigerian striker topped the scoring  chart with 23 goals.

Likewise,  playing for FC Khumaltar  Messouke Oloumou  (Cameroon) found the net 18 times, followed by  Jawalakhel Youth Club’s  Nikoto Masoabi(Lesotho) and   Rafiq Aminu of Friends Club (Ghana) with 16 and 14 goals respectively .

The only local player  to have scored more than ten goals was Satdobato Youth Club’s striker Dipak Raj Thakuri. He accounted for 12 goals.

Church Boys United’s Ananta Tamang was absolutely  the right choice for the most valuable player of the tournament 

Whether the presence of foreign players has helped local players improve their performance and raise the standard of the tournament is debatable. 

In my opinion,their  contribution  has been bare  minimum. I say this because they lack the desired quality  to make the competition competitive as much as we want. 

All Nepal Football Association, A -Division clubs and stakeholders must join hands and  work jointly to improve the quality of the league in every possible way.

If the football association organizes the league  only  to  fulfill its  responsibility it becomes irrelevant and meaningless.

Rather it should be  held with the sole objective for bettering and improving  both participants and competition.