Machhindra F.C.

Machhindra FC

Full name	Machhindra Football Club
Founded	1973; 52 years ago (1973)
Ground	Dasarath Rangasala Stadium
Capacity	15,000
Head coach	Kishor Kumar KC[1]
League	Martyr's Memorial A-Division League
2023	2nd of 14
Home colours Away colours

Machhindra FC (formally known as Machhindra Bahal Club)[2] is a Nepali professional football club based in the central Kathmandu neighborhood of Keltole, playing in the Martyr's Memorial A-Division League.[3][4]

History

Machhindra FC was established in 1973.[5] For sponsorship reasons, it was named Machhindra Bahal Club in 2004,[6] and Machhindra Energizer FC in 2006.[7] The club was promoted to Nepal's top football division in 2004. The team was one of the first teams in Nepal to appoint a foreign coach, the Swede Johan Kalin, in 2013, claiming that he was the highest qualified coach in Nepalese football history.[8] He led the team to a second-place finish in the league, and was praised for his tactics.[9]

The beginning of the 2020s represented the club's most successful time with two consecutive league championships.

On 5 April, Machhindra appeared in the 2022 AFC Cup qualifying play-off match against Blue Star of Sri Lanka,[10] at the Dasharath Rangasala Stadium but bowed out of the tournament losing 2–1.[11]

2023 squad

As of 28 October 2023

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 5 DF    NEP Diwakar Chaudary 6 MF    NEP Utsav Rai 7 MF    NEP Dipesh Ghale 9 FW    NEP Shilen Rajiv Bhandari 10 FW    NEP Bimal Gharti Magar 12 MF    NEP Abhishek Gurung 13 MF    NEP Prashant Awasthi 14 DF    NEP Nisen Subba 15 MF    NEP Pujan Uperkoti 16 DF    NEP Ashish Shrestha 17 DF    NEP Saurav Limbu

No. Pos. Nation Player 19 DF    NEP Devendra Tamang 20 GK    NEP Bishal Shrestha 23 DF    NEP Ranjit Dhimal 24 DF    NEP Tshering Gurung 25 DF    NEP Sagar Thapa 26 GK    NEP Nabin Silwal 30 MF    NEP Sanjay Sindhu 31 GK    NEP Pradip Bhandari 33 FW    NEP Bijya Bhujel 88 MF    NEP Anuj Sandeep Singh — FW    NEP Ayush Ghalan

Record by season

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

Season	League	Position	AFC Cup
2003–04[6]	B-Division	3rd	—
2004[12]	B-Division	2nd
2005–06[7]	A-Division	13th
2006–07[13]	A-Division	6th
2010	A-Division	6th
2011–12	National League	DNP
2012–13	A-Division	6th
2013–14	A-Division	2nd
2015	National League	Banned[14]
2018–19	A-Division	13th
2019–20	A-Division	1st
2021–22[15]	A-Division	1st	Round 1
2023	A-Division	2nd	—

Honours

National

• Martyr's Memorial A-Division League[16]
  • Champions (2): 2019–20, 2021–22[17]
• KP Oli Cup
  • Champions (1): 2023, 2024

Youth League

• ANFA U-16 League
  • Champions : 2024

References

1. "Machhindra, NRT finally win". The Kathmandu Post. Archived from the original on 2022-10-11. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
2. "Nepal 2003". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
3. "Machindra selected in AFC Cup". himalsanchar.com. Himal Sanchar. 18 December 2021. Archived from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
4. Kafle, Santosh (12 April 2021). "Punjab beat Machhindra, enter semis". thehimalayantimes.com. Biratnagar: The Himalayan Times. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
5. "Team info: Machhindra Football Club (Nepal)". globalsportsarchive.com. Global Sports Archive. Archived from the original on 5 April 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
6. "Nepal 2003". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
7. "Nepal 2005/06". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 4 August 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
8. "Machhindra FC appoints Swedish coach Johan Kalin as head coach for initial contract of 4 months". Image Khabar. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
9. "I'm here to develop standard of Nepali football: Head coach Kalin". República. 2019-02-25. Archived from the original on 2019-05-14. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
10. "Machhindra Club to host Sri Lanka's Blue Star". kathmandupost.com. The Kathmandu Post. 18 January 2022. Archived from the original on 13 February 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
11. "Machhindra crash out of Qualifiers". thehimalayantimes.com. The Himalayan Times. Himalayan News Service. 6 April 2022. Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
12. "Nepal 2004". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 7 April 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
13. "Nepal 2006/07". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 8 April 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
14. "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.
15. "Martyrs Memorial A Division League 2021/22 – 2078 Martyr's Memorial A-Division League". www.hamrokhelkud.com. Hamaro Khel Kud. 19 December 2021. Archived from the original on 6 January 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
16. "Machhindra become champion for second consecutive time after defeating Satdobato". the-anfa.com. All Nepal Football Association. 16 February 2022. Archived from the original on 16 February 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
17. "A Division League Transfer: White Lions Sign Dayananda". Goal Nepal. 14 February 2023. Archived from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2023.

External links

• Machhindra F.C. on Facebook
• Machhindra F.C. on Twitter
• Machhindra F.C. on Instagram
• Goal Nepal page