Friends Club
Football club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
Lalitpur, Nepal
| |
| 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 Nepal National League (sometimes)[3] |
| 2023 | Martyr's Memorial A-Division League, 11th of 14 |
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 products of Friends Club.[citation needed]
History
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. 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.[citation needed] In 1996, the club toured to Bangladesh and took part in Bangabandhu Cup.[4]
Achievements
- Tribhuvan Challenge Shield (2): 1985, 1986
- Birthday Cup runner up (1): 2042 (BS)
Head coaching record
League finishes
The season-by-season performance of FC since 2000:
| Champions | Runners-up | Third place | Promoted | Relegated |
| Season | League | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | A-Division | 11th |
| 2001–2002 | League not held | |
| 2003-04 | A-Division | 5th |
| 2004 | 5th | |
| 2005–2006 | 12th | |
| 2006–2007 | 7th | |
| 2008–2009 | League not held due to conflicts between ANFA and the clubs | |
| 2010 | A-Division | 8th |
| 2011 | 6th | |
| 2011–12 | National | 7th |
| 2012–13 | A-Division | 4th |
| 2013–14 | 8th | |
| 2015 | National | banned by ANFA[5] |
| 2017–2018 | No league held | |
| 2018–19 | A-Division | 11th |
| 2019–20 | 11th | |
| 2020-21 | Not held due to COVID-19 | |
| 2021–22 | 12th | |
| 2023 | 11th | |