KATHMANDU: Immigration officials have turned back office bearers of the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) who arrived at Tribhuvan International Airport to travel to Mexico to watch the opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2026.

ANFA President Pankaj Bikram Nembang and General Secretary Kiran Rai, who are not involved in any criminal incidents nor under any investigation process, had reached Tribhuvan Airport on Tuesday morning to participate in Friday’s opening program. Citing “orders from above,” immigration staff turned them back.

However, Anuj Bhandari, Information Officer at the Tribhuvan Airport Immigration Office, stated that they were turned back because the Department of Immigration had placed them on a blacklist. “They had come to immigration. We did not grant departure clearance,” he says.

Legally, if a person has committed a serious crime or if there is a risk of them fleeing while an investigation is underway, a Government of Nepal investigative agency, ministry, or department can request to halt that individual’s foreign travel or blacklist their passport. In the case of the ANFA President and General Secretary, their foreign travel was halted despite no such situation existing.

“The passport was not blacklisted due to any crime or serious allegation. The National Sports Council (NSC) had sent a request to stop the foreign travel of certain individuals,” says Tika Ram Dhakal, Director and Spokesperson of the Department of Immigration. “We had placed them on a general watch list. Departure permission was denied in accordance with the Council’s request. We are also not an agency that conducts investigations or places individuals on blacklists.”

He stated that they merely implemented a request made by another government agency. In such scenarios, they place individuals on a blacklist or watch list based on the requirement, he explains. “We do not know which country or which program they are going to,” he says. “We are a facilitating agency. If an agency requests to halt foreign travel and we fail to stop it, we ourselves will be held responsible.”

NSC Acting Member-Secretary Ram Charitra Mehta confirms that the government stopped the ANFA office bearers from going abroad. He says, “They were stopped from going outside because of the ongoing problems in football within the country.” The NSC had made a decision on November 16, 2025, banning 24 individuals from traveling abroad.

The NSC had suspended ANFA for three months on March 25, 2026. Following that, a complaint was filed at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), alleging financial irregularities in ANFA. The NSC has also formed a three-member probe sub-committee, coordinated by executive member Kamal Bhattarai, to conduct an investigation.

Kamal Bhattarai, coordinator of the probe committee, explains that they were not allowed to go abroad because they failed to conduct tier-wise elections prior to the ANFA elections, which were scheduled to be held in Jhapa on March 27, 2026. “They did not obey what the NSC said. One cannot keep traveling abroad without holding elections. The stoppage we placed at that time remains intact,” he says. “Not bringing reforms in Nepal, but only seeking to travel abroad. That cannot be allowed.”

The same committee, for the purpose of investigating financial matters, had written to the department requesting to blacklist the passports of office bearers, including Pankaj Bikram Nembang, to prevent them from leaving the country for other places.

ANFA President Nembang and General Secretary Rai had visited the NSC on Monday, demanding the lifting of the suspension so they could travel to participate in the FIFA World Cup 2026. However, the NSC rejected their demand.

“They had come to meet us asking to be allowed to attend the FIFA meeting and the World Cup. However, we sent them back, stating that it cannot happen without resolving the problems in football,” says Acting Member-Secretary Mehta. “The department has blacklisted the passports of the entire ANFA executive committee. They cannot travel abroad anywhere. If they wish to go, they must resign from their positions and then go.”

The four-year tenure of the ANFA executive committee is ending on June 20. In the ANFA electoral general assembly held on June 20, 2022, Nembang was elected to the post of president by defeating his competitor Karma Tsering Sherpa by 6 votes. Prior to the election, Sherpa was the president and Nembang was the senior vice-president. However, they allege that the NSC tried to stop them because Nembang’s tenure would expire while the World Cup is still ongoing.

Senior Advocate Dinesh Tripathi claims that the government cannot impose a ban on foreign travel over a dispute within an organization. He states that a passport can only be withheld if there is a case involving involvement in a serious crime, a risk of fleeing the country during an investigation, or a situation where the person might not return to the country.

He says, “Every individual has the right to go outside the country and return to the country. A person cannot be arbitrarily stopped from going abroad without a criminal reason or a court order.” He mentions that the Sports Council does not hold the authority to withhold passports and stop foreign travel under the pretext of not holding elections.

To date, the Department of Immigration has placed more than 13,000 individuals, including foreign and Nepalese citizens, on its blacklist. If those on the blacklist due to involvement in crimes are encountered at airport immigration, the department takes them into custody and hands them over to the respective authorities.