It was over 70 years ago when Mahabir Club lifted the title of the Martyr’s Memorial ‘A’ Division League during the inaugural 1954-55 season. In what should have been an annual event, only 45 editions have been completed until 2023. The 46th edition is nowhere in sight.
To essentially tap into the commercial profit in football, private investors—Nepal Sports and Event Management (NSEM)—inked an eight-year deal with the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) for the Nepal Super League (NSL) in 2022, a year after the first season concluded.
However, even the private sector struggled to organise regular football. The NSL saw its second edition in 2023 and the third in 2025. The fourth season, slated for September in a home-and-away format, was cancelled, and the tournament seemed to have ended for good.
Now, the NSL has got a replacement: Nepal Football League (NFL).
Seven clubs—Kathmandu Rayzrs FC, Lalitpur City FC, FC Chitwan, Pokhara Thunders, Butwal Lumbini FC, Dhangadhi FC and Jhapa FC—that were previously associated with the NSL, along with key officials, announced the league on Friday.
“We will not return to the NSL if it is organised again,” the team owners said. However, when asked why the squad left the NSL, they had no concrete response.
“The NFL has been established following the initiation of the clubs,” read a press statement issued by NFL’s Chairman Kalyan Gurung. “NFL is the organisation of the clubs. They will compete as the members of the NFL.”
The first season of the NFL, another franchise-model tournament, will kick off on February 13.
Similarly, the organisers informed that the NFL will also have an “independent committee” to ensure that the tournament is organised impartially.
Yet, scepticism remains high over whether the NFL, despite its grand rhetoric of starting a new era in Nepali football, will actually materialise within its expected timeframe.
“No. The tournament will begin on the decided date,” Raju Ghising, tournament commissioner of the NFL, told the Post. “We know it will not be easy, but we will move forward tackling the challenges we face on the way.”
Ghising, a former senior sports journalist, was also the managing director of the NSL.
The NFL stated that it has not been backed by the government in terms of financial assistance.
Meanwhile, the government itself has been trying to begin a revamped domestic football cycle. That too the NFL.
“We are working to start a new football tournament: Nepal Football League,” Sasmit Pokharel, Minister for Sports, has said in multiple occasions.
When the Post asked the panel of franchise owners and NFL organisers whether the NFL stated by the minister and the one launched by them was the same or not, they denied. “We would have been backed by the state if it was the case,” said Ghising.
Without government support or recognition from a suspended ANFA, the new league steps into an uncertain space. For clubs and players caught in the middle, backing a breakaway league is less about business growth and more about simple survival.
As Nepali football sinks deeper into isolation and neglect, the question is no longer just whether the NFL can start on February 1. It is whether a private league launched without administrative backing can actually survive, or if it will become just another failed promise in Nepali football history.