Nepal Football Association suspends players arrested over matchfixing charges

Kathmandu: Nepal's Football Association (ANFA) has suspended five current and former national team players from all football-related activities after their arrest on match-fixing charges this week.

Nepali police arrested national captain Sagar Thapa, Sandip Rai, Ritesh Thapa, Bikash Singh Chhetri and coach Anjan KC on charges of alleged match-fixing from 2008 on Wednesday.

"The All Nepal Football Association is extremely saddened and shocked to hear the news covered by the media on the investigation of national football team captain Sagar Thapa along with Sandeep Rai, Ritesh Thapa, Bikash Singh Chhetri and coach Anjan KC over match-fixing," the ANFA said in a statement.

"The case being (a) sensitive one, the ANFA will refrain the four players and the coach from taking part in any kind of football-related activities until the case is cleared."

Nepali police said they were still proceeding with investigations and were yet to finalise the charges.

"The case against the players has been registered but there are still some investigative procedures we need to go through," SSP Sarbendra Khanal of the Metropolitan Police Crime Division told Reuters.

"The charges have not been fixed yet. This might take a couple of weeks. The players will remain in custody for that time."

The match-fixing scandal is another blow to the country's embattled soccer association after world governing body FIFA launched an investigation last year into financial irregularities during president Ganesh Thapa's reign at ANFA.

The long serving president and former national captain is fighting a court battle against four vice presidents he fired from the organisation earlier this year.

Last year, officials from ANFA asked FIFA to investigate the Nepali governing body.

Ganesh Thapa, a former Asian Football Confederation vice president, voluntarily stepped down and refrained from all soccer activities for 120 days late last year while FIFA probed accusations of misconduct from his colleagues at ANFA.

The FIFA Ethics Committee is yet to make a judgment on the case.