2023 Martyr's Memorial A-Division League

Martyr's Memorial A-Division League
Season	2023
Dates	3 March – 10 June
Champions	Church Boys United
Relegated	APF Club; FC Khumaltar
AFC Challenge League	Church Boys United
AFC Cup	Machhindra F.C.
Matches	182
Goals	437 (2.4 per match)
Top goalscorer	Afeez Olawale Oladipo; (23 goals)
Biggest win	Friends Club 6–0 Himalayan Sherpa Club; (17 April 2023)
Highest scoring	10 Goals Machhindra F.C. 7–3 FC Khumaltar; (11 April 2023)
Longest winning run	5 matches; Nepal Police F.C.
Longest unbeaten run	11 matches; Manang Marshyangdi Club
Longest winless run	14 matches; Three Star Club
Longest losing run	6 matches; Manang Marshyangdi Club
	← 2021–22 2026 →

Season2023

Dates3 March – 10 June

ChampionsChurch Boys United

RelegatedAPF Club
FC Khumaltar

The 2023 Martyr's Memorial A-Division League (Nepali: शहीद स्मारक ए डिभिजन लिग २०७९) was the 45th edition of Nepal's Martyr's Memorial A-Division League since its establishment in 1954–55. A total of 14 teams competed in the league.

Machhindra F.C. were the defending champions.

The league was scheduled to begin on 10 January 2023 but was pushed back to begin on 3 March 2023 due to a conflict between the All Nepal Football Association and the clubs regarding up-front payments.^[2]^[3]

On 6 June 2023, Church Boys United were crowned as league winners for the first time in club history, in what the Kathmandu Post called a "fairytale run," resulting in the team winning the title for three consecutive seasons after being promoted in the two years prior respectively.^[4] However, as the champions could not secure AFC club licensing, the second-placed team Machhindra F.C. qualified for the 2023–24 AFC Cup preliminary round 1.^[5]

The season would also be the first time that one of Nepal's three departmental clubs consisting of outfits of the Army, the Police and the Armed Police Force would be relegated, with the last team coming second to last and being relegated to the Martyr's Memorial B-Division League.^[6]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

Team	Location	Previous Season
Church Boys United	Kathmandu	1st (2022 B-Division)
Himalayan Sherpa Club		10th
Machhindra F.C.		1st
New Road Team		3rd
Sankata BSC		7th
Nepal Army F.C.		2nd
Nepal APF FC		8th
Nepal Police F.C.		11th
Friends Club	Lalitpur	12th
Jawalakhel YC		9th
FC Khumaltar		2nd (2022 B-Division)
Satdobato Youth Club		4th
Three Star Club		6th
Manang Marshyangdi Club	Kathmandu^[a]	5th

Team	Coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Church Boys United	Bal Gopal Maharjan	Ananta Tamang	Anee Sports	API Power Company Limited
Friends Club	Urjan Shrestha	Prakash Budhathoki	Ucan
Himalayan Sherpa Club	Suman Shrestha	Bishwas Shrestha	KTM CTY
Jawalakhel YC	Sunil Kumar Shrestha^[8]	Simanta Thapa	Jersey Pasal Nepal^[9]
FC Khumaltar	Yam Gurung	Rejin Subba	Standard Fashion	Vianet Communication
Machhindra F.C.	Kishor Kumar KC	Sujal Shrestha	Kelme	Pepe Pizza
Manang Marshyangdi Club	Bishnu Gurung^[10]	Deep Karki^[11]	KTM CTY
APF F.C.	Ratna Kaji Maharjan	Top Bahadur Bista	Kelme
Nepal Police F.C.	Chetan Ghimire	Ram Chandra Waji	Kelme
New Road Team	Raju Kaji Shakya	Bikram Dhimal	Kelme	Shikhar Insurance
Sankata BSC	Salyan Khadgi	Sunil Bal	Ucan
Satdobato Youth Club	Sanoj Shrestha	Sudip Gurung	Li-Ning	Royal Blue
Tribhuvan Army F.C.	Nabin Neupane	Bharat Khawas	Kelme
Three Star Club	Meghraj K.C.	Bikram Lama	Euro Passion USA

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	AFC Player	SAFF Player	Former Player
Church Boys United	Franklin Kuete Talla	Joseph Bempah	Yves Priso	Ranjeet Pandre^[12]	Gagandeep Singh^[13]
Friends Club	Rafiq Aminu	Ben Quansah	Torric Jebrin	Akhrorbek Uktamov	Uttam Rai
Himalayan Sherpa Club	Manuel Nana Agyemang^[14]	Pistone Mutamba	Abayomi Oluwaseun Fakunle	Mohamad Kdouh^[15]	Satyam Sharma^[16]
Jawalakhel YC	Masoabi Nkoto^[17]	Fode Fofana^[18]	Abdul Majid Samate	Abdulaziz Nishonboev^[19]	Rahul Khokhar^[20]
FC Khumaltar	Messouke Oloumou^[21]	Stephane Binong^[22]	Theophilus Owutey Apoh^[23]	Sanwil D'Costa^[24]	Abhishek Verma^[25]
Machhindra F.C.	Andrés Nia	Kareem Omolaja	Afeez Olawale Oladipo	Yuta Suzuki^[26]	Chencho Gyeltshen^[27]	Dayananda Singh Elangbam^[28]
Manang Marshyangdi Club	Diawandou Diagne^[29]	Oluwashina Azeez^[30]	Koffi Timothée Koudo^[30]	Saidzhamol Davlatzhonov^[31]	Yash Mhatre^[32]
APF F.C.	Adama Doumbiya	Armand Beadum	Abdou Ramani Poutougnigni	Yuya Kuriyama
Nepal Police F.C.	Joe Aidoo	Moses Twum	Serge Dicka	Ahmad Hijazi^[33]	Mohammed Ashiq^[34]
New Road Team	Nicolas Serge Song	Jean Anicet Mboumi	Stephane Junior Nguimbous	Lalnunzama^[35]	Saivish Singh^[36]
Sankata BSC	Andre Thiery Biyik	Nelson Yunwa	Junior Nkengue	Youssef Atriss	Sandip Alay^[37]
Satdobato Youth Club	Abdul Latif Abubakari	William Opoku	Ivan Marić^[38]	Sardorbek Matmuratov^[39]
Tribhuvan Army Club
Three Star Club	Peter Segun	Ajayi Martins Kayode	Siphamandla Mathenjwa	Mohammad Taha

Team	Outgoing coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming coach	Date of appointment
Manang Marshyangdi Club	Kiran Shrestha	Personal Issues	1 May 2023^[40]		Bishnu Gurung	6 May 2023
Church Boys United	Pradip Humagain	Work permit issues^[41]	6 April 2023^[42]	3rd	Bal Gopal Maharjan	13 April 2023
Machhindra Football Club	Prabesh Katuwal	Appointed National Coach Assistant^[43]	9 April 2023		Kishor Kumar KC^[44]	9 April 2023

Kathmandu	Lalitpur
Dasarath Rangasala	Chyasal Stadium	ANFA Complex
Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 6,000^{[citation needed]}

2023 Martyr's Memorial A-Division League

Location

Personnel and kits

Foreign players

Head coaching changes

Venues

Regular season

League table

Results

1st Round

2nd Round

Positions by round

Results by games

Season statistics

Scoring

Top Goal Scorers

Hat-tricks

Clean Sheets

Awards

End-of-Season Awards

Controversy

Notes

References

Related Articles

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Church Boys United (C)	26	13	9	4	34	15	+19	48	Qualification for 2024–25 AFC Challenge League playoff round
2	Machhindra FC	26	12	9	5	41	26	+15	45	Qualification for 2023–24 AFC Cup preliminary round 1^[a]
3	Nepal Police F.C.	26	12	5	9	29	30	−1	41
4	Jawalakhel YC	26	11	7	8	40	32	+8	40
5	Satdobato Youth Club	26	10	5	11	28	28	0	35
6	New Road Team F.C.	26	8	10	8	33	37	−4	34^[b]
7	Tribhuvan Army F.C.	26	8	10	8	30	29	+1	34^[b]
8	Manang Marshyangdi Club	26	7	11	8	25	29	−4	32^[c]
9	Sankata BSC	26	7	11	8	27	30	−3	32^[c]
10	Himalayan Sherpa Club	26	7	10	9	28	35	−7	31
11	Friends Club	26	7	9	10	42	37	+5	30^[d]
12	APF F.C.	26	8	6	12	29	36	−7	30^[d]
13	Three Star Club (R)	26	6	11	9	17	19	−2	29^[c]	Relegation to 2025-26 Martyr's Memorial B-Division League
14	FC Khumaltar (R)	26	8	3	15	34	54	−20	27	Relegation to 2025-26 Martyr's Memorial B-Division League

Home \ Away	APF	CBU	FRI	HSC	JYC	KHU	MFC	MMC	NPC	NRT	SAN	SYC	TAC	TSC
APF F.C.	—	0–0	1–1	3–5	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–2	2–0	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–0	2–0
Church Boys United	0–0	—	1–1	1–0	0–1	3–1	0–0	3–0	2–1	2–2	0–0	2–1	0–1	0–0
Friends Club	1–1	1–1	—	6–0	2–1	0–1	1–2	0–2	1–3	3–1	3–1	0–1	1–2	3–3
Himalayan Sherpa Club	5–3	0–1	0–6	—	2–1	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–2	0–0	2–2	1–1	0–1
Jawalakhel Youth Club	0–0	1–0	1–2	1–2	—	2–2	3–1	3–0	6–1	2–1	1–1	2–1	1–3	1–0
FC Khumaltar	0–2	1–3	1–0	2–1	2–2	—	3–7	2–1	1–3	1–3	0–1	1–2	3–1	0–2
Machhindra F.C.	0–1	0–0	2–1	1–1	1–3	7–3	—	0–0	2–1	1–1	2–1	0–0	0–2	0–0
Manang Marshyangdi Club	2–1	0–3	2–0	1–1	0–3	1–2	0–0	—	0–1	3–1	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–1
Nepal Police F.C.	0–2	1–2	3–1	0–1	1–6	3–1	1–2	1–0	—	1–1	0–3	0–0	0–0	0–1
New Road Team F.C.	1–0	2–2	1–3	2–1	1–2	3–1	1–1	1–3	1–1	—	1–2	1–2	3–3	1–0
Sankata BSC	1–0	0–0	1–3	0–0	1–1	1–0	1–2	0–1	3–0	2–1	—	0–4	0–0	0–3
Satdobato Youth Club	1–0	1–2	1–0	2–2	1–2	2–1	0–0	1–0	0–0	2–1	4–0	—	3–3	0–1
Tribhuvan Army F.C.	0–1	1–0	2–1	1–1	3–1	1–3	2–0	1–0	0–0	3–3	0–0	3–3	—	0–1
Three Star Club	0–2	0–0	3–3	1–0	0–1	2–0	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–1	3–0	1–0	1–0	—

Home \ Away	APF	CBU	FRI	HSC	JYC	KHU	MFC	MMC	NPC	NRT	SAN	SYC	TAC	TSC
APF F.C.	—	1–4	0–4	2–3	2–0	1–3	1–2	2–2	0–1	1–1	2–1	0–3	3–0	1–1
Church Boys United	4–1	—	2–1	1–1	3–0	2–0	2–1	0–0	1–0	4–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–0
Friends Club	4–0	1–2	—	0–0	1–4	3–1	2–2	1–1	1–2	2–2	1–1	4–0	0–3	0–0
Himalayan Sherpa Club	3–2	1–1	0–0	—	0–1	1–2	1–3	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	0–1	1–0
Jawalakhel Youth Club	0–2	0–3	4–1	1–0	—	2–4	0–0	2–2	1–2	1–1	2–2	0–1	2–0	0–1
FC Khumaltar	3–1	0–2	1–3	2–1	4–2	—	0–3	0–1	0–2	2–3	3–0	1–0	2–2	2–2
Machhindra F.C.	2–1	1–2	2–2	3–1	0–0	3–0	—	3–1	1–2	2–0	3–1	3–1	1–1	1–0
Manang Marshyangdi Club	2–2	0–0	1–1	1–1	2–2	1–0	1–3	—	2–2	0–1	2–2	0–0	1–0	1–0
Nepal Police F.C.	1–0	0–1	2–1	1–2	2–1	2–0	2–1	2–2	—	1–0	2–1	1–0	1–1	1–0
New Road Team F.C.	1–1	1–4	2–2	1–1	1–1	3–2	0–2	1–0	0–1	—	1–1	2–1	1–0	0–0
Sankata BSC	1–2	1–0	1–1	1–1	2–2	3–0	1–3	2–2	1–2	1–1	—	2–0	1–1	0–0
Satdobato Youth Club	3–0	0–1	0–4	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–3	0–0	0–1	1–2	0–2	—	2–1	2–0
Tribhuvan Army F.C.	0–3	1–0	3–0	1–0	0–2	2–2	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–2	—	1–1
Three Star Club	1–1	0–0	0–0	0–1	1–0	2–2	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–2	1–1	—

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26
Team ╲ Round
Church Boys United	4	1	1	1	3	3	3	3	4	2	3	5	4	2	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Machhindra F.C.	13	14	13	12	11	11	9	8	7	9	6	7	7	5	4	4	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Nepal Police F.C.	11	13	14	14	14	14	13	14	14	14	14	14	14	12	14	14	12	10	12	8	7	4	4	4	3	3
Jawalakhel YC	1	2	3	4	4	2	2	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	4	4
Satdobato Youth Club	3	3	2	2	1	4	4	1	2	4	4	3	3	4	5	5	4	5	4	4	6	7	9	5	5	5
New Road Team F.C.	12	12	11	13	13	13	12	12	13	11	10	11	9	9	11	12	9	9	9	11	8	8	10	10	6	6
Tribhuwan Army F.C.	8	4	4	9	5	8	8	6	8	5	5	4	5	6	6	7	6	6	6	5	5	5	6	11	9	7
Manang Marshyangdi Club	6	5	5	3	2	1	1	2	3	6	7	8	10	8	8	8	8	8	8	9	11	10	5	6	7	8
Three Star Club	14	11	8	6	7	6	6	5	5	3	2	2	2	3	3	3	5	4	5	6	10	11	11	12	12	13
Sankata BSC	9	10	6	8	8	7	7	7	6	7	8	9	8	11	10	10	11	12	11	10	13	12	12	9	8	9
Himalayan Sherpa Club	7	6	9	11	10	10	11	10	11	13	13	13	12	10	7	9	10	7	7	7	4	9	7	7	10	10
Friends Club	10	9	12	10	12	12	14	13	12	10	12	10	11	13	13	11	13	13	13	13	12	13	13	13	13	11
APF F.C.	2	7	7	5	6	5	5	9	9	8	9	6	6	7	9	6	7	11	10	12	9	6	8	8	11	12
FC Khumaltar	5	8	10	7	9	9	10	11	10	12	11	12	13	14	12	13	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	14

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Afeez Olawale Oladipo	Machhindra FC	23
2	Messouke Oloumou	Khumaltar FC	18
3	Masoabi Nkoto	Jawalakhel YC	16
4	Rafiq Aminu	Friends	14
5	Dipak Raj Thakuri	Satdobato YC	12
6	Stephane Binong	Khumaltar FC	10
7	Koffi Timothée Koudo	Manang Marshyangdi Club	9

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Afeez Olawale Oladipo⁵	Machhindra FC	Khumaltar FC	7–3^[47]	11 April 2023
Stephane Binong	Khumaltar FC	Jawalakhel YC	4–2^[48]	5 May 2023
Anjan Bista	Church Boys	New Road Team	4–1^[49]	6 May 2023
Afeez Olawale Oladipo	Machhindra FC	Satdobato YC	3–1^[50]	31 May 2023

Rank	Player	Team	Clean sheets
1	Yves Priso	Church Boys	11
2	Bishal Shrestha	Machhindra FC	9
3	Deep Karki	Manang Marshyangdi Club	8
	Mohammad Taha	Three Star Club
	Satrughan Chaudhary	Nepal Police Club
6	Abhishek Baral	Satdobato YC	7
6	Bikesh Kuthu	Tribhuvan Army Club	7
8	Tikendra Singh Thapa	Sankata BSC	6

Award^[52]	Winner	Club
Player of the Season	Ananta Tamang	Church Boys United
Emerging Player	Laken Limbu	Three Star Club
Top Scorer	Olawale Afeez Oladipo	Machhindra F.C.
Best Goalkeeper	Yves Priso	Church Boys United
Fair Play	Nepal Police F.C.

v t e 2022–23 in Asian football (AFC)
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League cups	Bahrain Bangladesh Hong Kong Shield India '22 '23 Japan '22 '23 Jordan '22 '23 Kuwait Crown Prince Cup Federation Cup Lebanon Elite Cup Challenge Cup Malaysia Cup Challenge Cup Maldives '22 '23 Oman Philippines Qatar Syria Thailand '21–'22 '22–'23 Uzbekistan United Arab Emirates
Super Cups	Bahrain China East Timor Iran Japan Saudi Arabia Tajikistan '22 '23 Thailand UAE '22 '23 Uzbekistan '22 '23 Vietnam
Regional club competitions	2022 ASEAN Club Championship 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup
AFC club competitions	AFC Champions League Qualifying play-offs Group stage Knockout stage Final AFC Cup Qualifying play-offs Group stage Knockout stage Final
National team competitions	2022 FIFA World Cup qualification 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification 2022 AFF Championship (Final) 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup (Final) 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup qualification 2022 EAFF E-1 Football Championship 25th Arabian Gulf Cup 2023 WAFF Championship 2023 SAFF Championship