By a Staff Reporter
Kathmandu – Nepal’s national football team’s captain and goalkeeper Kiran Chemjong, who is currently outside the country, has expressed his displeasure over the treatment of players by chief coach Abdullah Al Mutairi.
Chemjong made such remark on Wednesday night through social networking site Facebook.
He posted a status saying: “I am dissatisfied with the treatment of players by the chief coach of the national team. It is not right to force the national players to leave the training camp for raising genuine concerns. As the captain and a member of the national team, I am always in support of the players.”
Nine senior footballers preparing for the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers 2023 had left the training camp on Tuesday expressing concerns over the treatment of players by the chief coach. The chief coach had ordered Rohit Chand, who has been leading the team in the absence of Chemjong, to leave the training. Following such instructions, other players raised the issue with the chief coach after which they were also told to leave the camp.
Chand, who has been consistently playing the Indonesian league, was in the training camp since the beginning this time. It has been learnt that the chief coach had an altercation with Chand after he raised some general issues related to the players’ training. He then ordered Chand to leave the training, which had a ripple effect as other players also followed suit.
Besides Chand, other senior players who were ordered to leave the camp include Sujal Shrestha, Ananta Tamang, Bimal Ghartimagar, Dinesh Rajbanshi, Bishal Shrestha, Anjan Bista, Suman Lama among others. The players have already informed the ANFA leadership about this issue. However, ANFA has not made any official remarks about the players leaving the training camp. It has been learnt that ANFA President Karma Chiring Sherpa will take up the issue with the chief coach. Tensions between the chief coach and the players had flared up time and again but this is the first time that the issue has become public.
