It's sad to read at this day and age that our athletes still struggle to make a decent living. And even those who have managed to shine in international stages face such a struggle when it comes to medical care and what not.
Sabitra Bhandari, our beloved Samba is the closest thing we will have to Pele or Messi or any football superstars. She was scoring goals like crazy when she played in the Indian league. Did her stint in Israel and was making a big impact in New Zealand when she injured herself.
She had to go on Facebook and beg for funds to fund her medical care in Qatar. Many Nepalis, mostly who are abroad and at home as well showed their love and support by sending in more than hundred grand plus to fund her surgery and rehab there and after that Samba had to beg her supporters not to send any funds.
I think it would be better if we actually donate and at least create an endowment fund of minimum of 5 crores so that Samba will get to use the money from the interest generated for the rest of her life as some form of financial support or pension when she retires as she only has a max few more years to shine as she slowly slows down due to injuries and age as well.
The is a lady who will in someways remain the highest goal scorer for Nepal in international matches for many decades to come. If she was born across the border, she would be already making ten times more in endorsements and perks and salaries maybe. She would have a local State government job and receive cash rewards for her goals from local sponsors and the government as well.
But in our land, the government and even business houses who sponsor lot of funny things do not seem to support athletes with long term funding. A car or a bike and Rs 25,000 for the best player of the tournament are the highest perks in many of our sports tournaments.And even the prize winners find it difficult to take the prize when they realize that the sponsors will not pay the taxes on the vehicle gifted. And the few lakhs cash prize promised by the government sometimes somehow gets stuck through the bureaucracy and are either handed years and years later or just forgotten.
ANFA is our football body and the most corrupt sports organization in the country. I hear they receive more than Rs 100 crores annually from FIFA, AFC and other sponsors but those in the Executive Committee seem to be drawing salaries to the tune of more than 20 lakhs a year while athletes get few paisas. I hear the average salary of international team players is even less than Rs 20,000 per month. The officials go on foreign junkets in the name of conferences and do nothing but engage in political battles with their rivals while they forget that they were elected to develop the game of football not play political pingpong.
I don't want to take names and embarrass anyone but there was a huge scandal more than a decade ago when Rs 50+ crores was misappropriated by then people in charge at ANFA. New folks have come to lead ANFA and they have not changed. It's like you replace the old corrupt guard with the new corrupt ones because the new ones are also the old ones who were just left out of power in the old regime. I hope it makes sense!
Maybe, we should create a Sports Endowment Fund. If all of our Nepalis even donate a dollar, it's already a 5 million dollar fund. Ten dollars would make it 50. Manage the fund from abroad with honest folks without any vested interest. Why abroad? Because we can't trust our financial regulatory institutions. They will block the funds in the name of this and that and give you a hard time. If the fund is managed by a registered charitable organizations abroad then it is more transparent and maybe tax-deductible as well.
The interest from the fund could be used to provide athletes much needed financial support when needed and can also be used to provide incentives for any successes in sporting events when they represent our nation at the international stage.
Our business houses in Nepal could do it but they won't for their own reasons. Our government could manage some funds but they will rather waste in on perks and other petty stuff for government employees and those in power than support our athletes.
I am not leaving out our folks back home as well. But those working abroad have a stable income and much higher one as well than those of us here. But of course, some of us barely making Rs 15 to 20,000 a month can donate Rs 20 a month. A person working overseas can donate Rs 130 but let us develop a monthly funding pledge for the rest of our lives to help our athletes and who knows later on we will have such funds to help the country in times of natural disaster and a separate hydropower fund where a year worth of remittance could finance a 10,000 MW project with our people's money then depending on foreigners or loans from commercial banks to fund our development projects.