KATHMANDU, MAY 11
Former president of All Nepal Football Association Ganesh Thapa today challenged Karma Tshiring Sherpa, who has been at the helm of football governing body for the last four years, to prove the allegations or face consequences.
Thapa – who is serving 10- year ban imposed by international bodies, FIFA and AFC, on corruption charges since 2015 – said he and his family had to go through mental torture for the last seven years due to the false accusations from Sherpa.
“Only me and my family members know how much did we suffer in the past seven years. All the allegations made by Sherpa are false and I challenge him to prove them,” said Thapa at a press meet.
According to Thapa, Sherpa had accused him on dozens of cases before becoming the ANFA president. “All the documents came under him after he took over the ANFA and he should have produced evidences to prove me guilty,” said Thapa. “I have done nothing wrong, except for accepting the financial assistance from the then AFC President Mohammad Bin Hamam. I regret that I did not fight the case in Court of Arbitration and made a mistake by accepting the ban imposed by the FIFA and AFC,” he said.
Thapa also said that Sherpa had accused him of funds embezzlement during my tenure at the ANFA. “All the documents are under Sherpa after he became the president and I am ready to face any consequence if found guilty,” he said.
“But I am not going to stay quiet now. He should prove me guilty. Otherwise, I will take legal action against him,” said Thapa. “I will start writing to the ANFA, National Sports Council, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Human Rights Commission, AFC and FIFA regarding the false accusations from May 17 onwards. If I don’t get response from these bodies, I will go to court as this is my fight for justice,” he added.
The Ethics Committee of FIFA had on November 16, 2015 banned Thapa for 10 years and slapped a fine of 20,000 Swiss francs ($19,850). “…Thapa was found guilty of infringing Article 13 (general rules of conduct), Article 15 (loyalty), Article 18 (duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting), Article 19 (conflicts of interest), Article 20 (offering and accepting gifts and other benefits) and Article 21 (bribery and corruption) of the FIFA Code of Ethics,” FIFA had said.
A version of this article appears in the print on May 12, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.