Players have taken to the streets in protest after the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) and A Division clubs agreed to forgo this year’s A Division League and instead organize only a National League.

At the call of the Nepal Football Players Association, footballers staged a sit-in outside ANFA headquarters in Satdobato on Thursday. They also hung their medals on the ANFA gate, saying they were “gifting” them to ANFA in protest. The players argued that the absence of a regular league has put their careers in jeopardy and pushed Nepali football further into decline.

Earlier on Monday, ANFA secretariat officials and representatives of 14 clubs agreed to hold the A Division League under a home-and-away format only from next year. For this year, they decided to organize a National League featuring 10 teams—the top six from the A Division League held three years ago and the four semifinalists of the ANFA President’s League currently underway in Hetauda.

The National League will include defending champions Church Boys United, Machhindra Football Club, Nepal Police Club, Satdobato Youth Club, Jawalakhel Youth Club, and New Road Team (NRT). The remaining eight A Division clubs, however, will not be represented.