BFF must take responsibility for failure to send team for Olympic qualifiers

Surely, you still have vivid memories of the open top bus ride of the champion Bangladesh women’s team which enmoured the entire country in festivity. The Bangladesh team had just returned from Kathmandu as winners of the SAFF Women’s championship. To fulfill the wishes of the victorious girls, the roof of a BRTC bus was cut off to turn in into an open top bus. It took the champions a few hours to get to the BFF headquarters in Motijheel from the airport on that bus. There were people everywhere on both sides of the road. The country hadn’t witnessed a day of such unanimous euphoria in a quite a while.

It’s been seven months since Bangladesh’s triumph over Nepal in the final to win the SAFF championship. What have the champions done since then? This question has no answer. As since then the Bangladesh women’s football team hasn’t played any international match. I’m sure you have already guessed why I’ve brought up the story of the open top bus rally. The SAFF Champion Bangladesh team couldn’t compete in the Paris Olympic football qualifiers despite having the opportunity– which has stirred up a storm in the country’s sporting community. Many are finding it difficult to accept the explanation given by the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan also raised some valid questions, questions which were already blowing in the wind.

Salahuddin said that the lack of funds was the reason why they had to withdraw their name from the Olympic Qualifiers in Myanmar after submitting their name for participation in the first place. But, exactly how much money did they need? Sometimes the amount is said to be Tk 6-7 million (Tk 60-70 lakhs), on other occasions, an even larger amount is being cited. The BFF president also said that after begging for funds from everywhere for so long, they don’t have any more doors open to ask for funds. He also indirectly blamed the media for the failure to arrange the funds. In his words, the media only prints “negative news”, which is why football is in such dire straits. According to him, the BFF is not at all at fault. Salahuddin has also seemingly completely forgotten what the media had done after the girls won the SAFF Championship.

BFF’s role in taking the country’s women’s football to the level it is at right now can’t be overlooked. One can even say this is the only aspect where BFF had a long-term plan even though it was the government that had sowed the seeds. Bangamata School Football tournament, where all primary schools of the country take part, initiated this women’s football revolution. BFF selected the best footballers from the tournament, brought them to the BFF House for a residential camp and provided them training facilities. This was part of BFF’s responsibility as the country’s football federation. Still, BFF received a lot of plaudits for fulfilling this responsibility. They also deserved that praise as in the beginning, the funds to run the camp used to come right out of the pockets of the BFF president and some other high ups.

In Salahuddin’s 15-year tenure as the BFF president, women’s football has been his biggest achievement. In age-level tournaments, the Bangladesh girls are almost unmatched in South Asia. They also ended the drought of trophies in the national level by winning the SAFF Championship. The significance of the rise of women’s football is not limited to just a sport. These girls have shattered insurmountable social barriers. Football has transformed many families, sometimes an entire village. A new school building was built in Kalsindur, and the village got electricity thanks to football.

SAFF Championship triumph of the Sabina Khatun-led team could’ve been a big stepping stone for the country’s women’s football. There should’ve been long term plans in place for the victorious team and a roadmap of how the best team in South Asia could become the best team in all of Asia. But the reality is the SAFF champions didn’t even get an opportunity to play an international match for around seven months. Is it not BFF’s failure that they couldn’t utilise the SAFF craze?

There is a common formula to getting better in every game– compete against comparatively stronger opponents. The Olympic qualifiers presented that opportunity for the Bangladesh team. Out of the three opponents, only the Maldives were lower than Bangladesh in the FIFA rankings (Bangladesh 140, Maldives 159). The other two teams, Myanmar and Iran, rank 47 and 67 respectively. That’s why failure to compete in the qualifiers for the lack of funds has caused so much debate. Kazi Salahuddin himself told me, “It’s a news that shook the nation.”

A question naturally arises. Is this why BFF didn’t send the Bangladesh team to Myanmar, to ‘shake’ the ‘nation’? The question is why it took them so long to inform the ‘nation’ of the problem. A source at the BFF said, Bangladesh wanted to be the hosts of ‘B’ group matches of the qualifiers. BFF should’ve become proactive after their proposal got denied. It was clear from then that it would take a hefty amount to compete in the Olympic qualifiers.

But when the BFF said it can’t send the team due to financial constraints, it was way too late. The federation asked the government for funds at the last moment. Salahuddin himself said, upon getting the news the prime minister phoned him and scolded him. Then why didn’t he inform the prime minister of the problem beforehand! All this has given his critics an opportunity to question, whether BFF took this decision to prompt the government to allot the Tk 4.5 billion (Tk 450 crore) the federation had asked for to carry out a five-year project for football development.

There is no way to say for certain whether it’s true or false. But the damage is already done. What’s required now is to ensure that something like this never happens in the future. FIFA has completely banned any kind of government interference on a national football federation. But that doesn’t mean the government can’t help in long term projects to develop women’s football. This needs to be done on an immediate basis. Because, although it’s BFF that is to blame for the failure to send the team to the Olympic qualifiers, it has brought shame for the entire country.

*Utpal Shuvro, Chief Sports Editor, Prothom Alo

*This opinion piece appeared in the print edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ashfaq-Ul-Alam Niloy