Friends Club
 | |
| Full name | Friends Club[1] |
|---|---|
| Founded | 16 May 1972[2] |
| Ground | Pulchowk Campus,[citation needed] Lalitpur, Nepal |
| Capacity | 10,000 |
| Chairman | Bishwas Bikram Shah |
| Head coach | Urjan Shrestha |
| League | Martyr's Memorial A-Division League |
| 2023 | 12th of 14 |
Friends Club is a Nepali professional football club from the Kopundole neighborhood of Lalitpur. The club is known for nurturing young talent of Nepalese football. Friends Club has produced more than 200 national football players to date.[citation needed] It also organized certain social activities like reading room facilities, blood donations, bicycle rallies against drug abuse etc.
Since the late 1980s, the club has implemented different training activities for women and children. The team practices on the grounds of Pulchok Campus. National players like Raju Tamang, Bharat Khawas, Sagar Thapa, Nirajan Khadka or Deepak Bhusal are all products of Friends Club Martyr's Memorial A-Division League.[citation needed]
History
[edit]Friends Club was established in 1972 as a children's club with a reading-room facility in Kopundol. After a couple of years of its establishment, the club diversified its social activities with a motto of "better health through sports among the people of Kopundol." Eventually Friends Club established itself as a well reputed local sports club and for next several years, it remained only as a football club that every now and then organized certain social activities like reading room facility, blood donation, bicycle rally against drugs abuse etc. It was since late eighties that the Club started implementing various training activities for women and children. It also started a health clinic and Pathology laboratory which eventually, became very popular among the people of Kopundol and surrounding community. The club has come a long way since 1972 until now from a sports club to a sport-cum social club.[citation needed]
In 1996, the club toured to Bangladesh and took part in Bangabandhu Cup.[3]
Achievements
[edit]- Tribhuvan Challenge Shield (3): 1985, 1986, Unknown
- Mahendra Gold cup (2): Unknown
- Birthday Cup runner up (1): 2042 (BS)
- Birthday Cup (1): 2002
- Birgunj (2): Unknown
- Martyr's Memorial League runner-up (1): Unknown
- Tillotama Gold Cup runner-up (1): Unknown
- Itahari Gold Cup runner-up (1): Unknown
- Sahid Smarak League runner-up (6): Unknown
Head coaching record
[edit]updated on 14 May 2020
| Name | Nationality | From | To | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ramesh Maharjan |  Nepal
|
2018 | 2019 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 25 | 23.08 |
| Marcos Filipe |  Brazil
|
2019 | 2020 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 30.77 |
League finishes
[edit]The season-by-season performance of FC since 2000:
| Season | League | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Martyr's Memorial A-Division League | 11th |
| 2001–2002 | League not held | |
| 2003-04 | Martyr's Memorial A-Division League | 5th |
| 2004 | 5th | |
| 2005–2006 | 12th | |
| 2006–2007 | 7th | |
| 2008–2009 | League not held due to conflicts between ANFA and the clubs | |
| 2010 | Martyr's Memorial A-Division League | 8th |
| 2011 | 6th | |
| 2011–12 | Nepal National League | 7th |
| 2012–13 | Martyr's Memorial A-Division League | 4th |
| 2013–14 | 8th | |
| 2015 | Nepal National League | banned by ANFA[4] |
| 2017–2018 | No league held | |
| 2018–19 | Martyr's Memorial A-Division League | 11th |
| 2019–2020 | 11th | |
| 2021 | ||
References
[edit]- ^ "Friends draw with Satdobato as A Division League begins". All Nepal Football Association (ANFA). 19 November 2021. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
- ^ Team profile: NIBL FRIENDS CLUB (Estd 1972 AD). the-anfa.com. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
- ^ Schöggl, Hans (12 May 2016). "Bangabandhu Cup 1996/97". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ "ANFA Releases First Installment Of Rs 5 Lakhs To All Nine National League Participating Teams". GoalNepal.com. 16 January 2015. Archived from the original on 17 January 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
External links
[edit]- Official website at friendsclub.org.np
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