This was the situation in France as the country rejoiced its victory in the recently-concluded #FIFAWorldCup2018.

On July 17, 2018, the country’s top leadership, football lovers and jubilant citizens welcomed the country’s football team back to the country after their astounding victory in the #FIFA2018Championship.

As the plane landed early July 16, 2018, France Football Team Captain Hugo Lloris and his team led by the Coach #Didier Deschamps stepped into the nation with loads of happiness and a glittering #FIFA2018WorldCupTrophy waving to the country’s cheering crowds.

In a grand official reception amid thousands of attendees including youth from the country’s football clubs, France Premiere President Emmanuel Macron felicitated the victorious soccer players for hoisting the country’s flag at the #FIFAChampionship.

As a rare honor, Macron’s office announced that the team and its coach would get the country’s highest accolade – the Légion d’Honneur, for their contribution to the nation in the form of #FIFA2018Victory.

“Never forget where you come from: all the clubs across France that trained you,” read Macron’s official statement.

While the cities ran into joyful events celebrating the victory of #LesBlues, Paris transport company RATP came up with an enthusing announcement that it would rename some of the country’s major stations after the team’s players.

The final match of the FIFA World Cup saw Croatia and France facing each other for a fierce football battle the world was closely watching.

Placing an end to hours-long suspense, France won the championship beating Croatia for 4-2 in the final #FIFA2018 match held in Moscow on July 15, 2018.

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The whole world is eagerly waiting for this month-long tournament that is being held from June 14 – July 15, 2018, beginning with the first match in Moscow between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Like any other country, Nepal also has some exciting updates related to #FIFAWorldCup2018. Let’s dive-in into some of them:

FIFA Fever Catches Up!
Days ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2018, various campaigns by local representatives of international brands have begun across the country.

One of the official local sponsors of FIFA 2018 said they have started various sales campaigns across the country in the wake of World Cup.

Nepal’s authorized distributors of the international TV brands announced various exciting offers to the local public to attract the wide consumer base of the country.

The campaigns included the sale of varieties of consumer appliances through exciting discounts and lucky draw schemes.

The local Regional Manager of one of the international brands says the TV sales across the country have gone up in the wake of #FIFA2018 compared to #FIFA2014. The sellers are expecting a 30 percent rise in their TV sales in this FIFA season over the previous one.

“Upgrading to smart TV is growing unbelievably fast. All smart TV heavyweights are set to engage in a battle royale during the FIFA World Cup 2018,” says the local Marketing Communications and Brand Management Head of one of the international TV brands operating in Nepal.

FIFA Takes Over Minister
One of the recent incidents in Nepal made evident the craze that the country has for FIFA World Cup 2018.

In a latest move, Nepal’s most-watched TV channel Nepal Television (NTV) has cancelled the airing of the country’s famous talk show program ‘Sidha Prasna’ to broadcast the FIFA Football World Cup 2018.

Sidha Prasna is the 12-year-old talk show program produced by Raju Thapa.

 “The program was coming to an end anyway. The FIFA World Cup is also starting at the same time. That is why we urged Thapa to close his program from this week,” says NTV General Manager Govinda Rokaya.

Local Media Grabs Broadcast Rights
In an exciting update for local football lovers, a local advertising agency firm grabbed the #FIFA2018Broadcasting and digital rights from the South Asia’s exclusive broadcaster of the tournament.

As per the sources, Nepal’s Media Hub Pvt Ltd. got the deal for #FIFA2018Live from India’s Sony Pictures Network for USD 235,000. In tie-up with the local media, the firm will do a live broadcast of all the 64 World Cup matches.

With this, Nepal joins the list of 200 countries that live broadcast the entire World Cup event during the tournament.

Grabbing the deal of FIFA 2018 digital rights is one of the toughest parts, globally.

“In line with FIFA’s objective to take the football showpiece to the maximum number of viewers around the globe, the game’s governing body ensures countries like Nepal get the broadcasting rights at much lower price,” says Media Hub owner Som Dhital.

“FIFA prioritizes the home broadcaster (NTV in Nepal),” added Dhital.

Coke Khaam, Russia Jaam
Long ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2018, Bottlers Association of Nepal and Coca-Cola Nepal launched a special campaign called ‘Coke Khaam, Russia Jaam’ on February 20, 2018.

In a rare opportunity, the promotional campaign announced an all-expense paid trip to Russia to watch the World Cup matches for 40 Nepali Coca-Cola consumers.

“This is our largest campaign as 40 lucky consumers will get a trip to FIFA World Cup, while 12,600 consumers will get exclusive FIFA merchandise,” Coca-Cola Nepal Country Director Ambuj Singh said at the program launch event.

According to the Bottlers Association of Nepal, this campaign was one of the biggest promotional events of Nepal, the country that holds high esteem for football.

“With a long standing global partnership between the world’s most popular game and the world’s most popular beverage, we offer to our consumers with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the magic and exhilaration of the beautiful game of football,” said Puneet Varshney, Managing Director of Bottlers Nepal Limited.

SWAFF for South Asian Football
In a move encouraging football in South and West Asian nations, a group of South Asian countries are working on a proposal for the formation of a new football body- ‘South West Asian Football Federation (SWAFF)’.

Towards this end, Presidents of football federations of South and West Asian nations arrived in Jeddah on June 14, 2018 for discussions on the formation of SWAFF.

Representatives from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and some Middle-East countries joined the meet.

SWAFF is being considered as a milestone in the development of frontier football nations.

“The nations of South and West Asia want to work with each other to grow football in the region, and to compete on a more equal playing field in the future World Cup competitions and international tournaments,” says Dr Adel Ezzat, President and Chairman of Saudi Arabian Football Federation.

“We want to see the region become a presence in world football,” added Ezzat.

Many other nations’ representatives present at the meet also lauded the SWAFF initiative terming that as a milestone initiative for the region and in the frontier of football.

Let’s hope Nepal and other member countries that hold high esteem for football will get the best out of the new initiative!

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The program launched by Gazprom, the official partner of FIFA and FIFA World Cup 2018, intends to promote human values, friendship, equality and respect among young communities of the world.

“The sixth Gazprom Football for Friendship, being held in collaboration with FIFA, is an event that brings together children from 211 countries and regions. We are delighted to support the program and will be nominating two young students from Nepal to participate in the programme in Moscow in June,” said Sanjib Mishra, Deputy General Secretary of the All Nepal Football Association in an official release.

“We look forward to these young children becoming a part of the global movement of football for peace,” adds Mishra.

With regard to the project, an open draw was held in Moscow, wherein, 32 International Teams of Friendship and relevant player roles (midfielder, forward, defender and goalkeeper) were identified.

Of these, a young Nepali footballer has been selected for the forward role in the African Elephant team.

As part of this international championship, athletes from different countries, genders and physical abilities were grouped into one team, and each team will undergo training by young coaches, who comprise of footballers from different countries in the age group of 14-16yrs.

Post the championship, all the finalized young ambassadors will participate in the sixth International Football for Friendship Children’s Forum, wherein, they will discuss ways to take ahead the program’s key values.

Reflecting the protection of ecoology theme behind the program, each of the teams were named after the endangered animals across the globe.

For Human Principles

“The sixth season of the international children’s social program, Football for Friendship is officially open. This year, F4F is supported by 211 countries and regions. We live in an age where people all over the world seek to unite behind the principles of equality and respect for each other. The project is a crucial element in this process,” says Viktor Zubkov, Chairman of the Board of Directors at PJSC Gazprom.

Meanwhile, the FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura also said, “We are glad to support this unique initiative from the FIFA partner, Gazprom. The forum is a perfect example of how football can be used to open doors for girls and boys from all backgrounds, a mission that FIFA supports actively.”

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The football world cup, titled 2018 Street Child World Cup, will be held during May 19-27, 2018 in Moscow, Russia.

Apart from the Nepali football team in the Boys category, this football tournament will feature 24
U-17 football teams, 12 each in Boys and Girls categories, from 22 countries.

A Nepal-based NGO Shelter Ashraya Nepal has taken this initiative to present the Nepali football on a global platform.

The candidates were finalized based on a three-day selection tournament held among 14 teams of 15 institutions, who have been offering shelter to orphans and street children, in Kathmandu in September 2017. 

“The selected players are undergoing training with the All Nepal Football Association’s (ANFA) assistance. We believe the players will represent whole Nepal in the World Cup rather than specific institutions,” says Khusbu Oli, President, Shelter Ashraya.

According to Oli, the football team Head Coach Rajan Neupane and ANFA Coach Nabin Maharjan have also appreciated the final team.

The Nepali team, with other five reserved players, has Aron Karki as the goalkeeper and Manbir Lama and Bikash Timsina as the defenders.

Ramesh Shah, Sachin BK Rohan Bhusal, Santosh Khatri, Harsha Thakuri and Pawan Shahi are among other key players.

Around 200 street-connected children from various parts of the world will come together in Moscow for this international football tournament, which also includes festival of arts and Congress for their rights.

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