Sabbir Hossain :
Football in Bangladesh is sinking day by day due to the management crisis, club officials’ lethargic attitude and lack of footballers’ motivation. The team’s recent performance is the poorest of all times. It could not win a single match in the World Cup 2018 and the Asia Cup 2019 qualifiers.
Former footballer of Bangladesh National Football team Satyajit Das Rupu said, “We are ashamed of Bangladesh National Football team’s latest sorrowful performance against the Bhutan National Football team in the AFC Asian Cup Play-off match.” Bangladesh lost to them by 1-3 goals on October 10. It might bar Bangladesh from participating in any AFC sponsored tournament in future at least for two to three years.
Bangladesh’s FIFA ranking has been graded to 188 from 185 after the loss. It is really shameful. When our neighbour country Bhutan are rising fast, we are sinking contrarily. Rupu said, ” The BFF has been suffering from the management crisis. The club officials, the coach and all the players are also acutely responsible for the catastrophe.”
He added that the players gave little time to the practice session. Rather they were mostly engaged with their respective club matches.
Former footballer of Bangladesh National Football team Kazi Josimuddin Josi said, “After the independence, federations in reality took no steps for the development of football in the country.”
Josi said, “The Football Federations for years showed little interest in the development of Age Group training for at least ten years before this debacle.”
He said, “The Government should have an appropriate planning for the development of sports. Those, who are engaged with football, everybody should take step for the development of football.”
He added that the Mayors of Dhaka City Corporations should arrange sufficient number of soccer grounds for future footballers.
He also said that BFF should restore Senior Division Football Leagues in Dhaka and other divisional cities and district soccer leagues in all the districts. a befitting manner.
BFF must organise the school football tournaments in a regular basis, Josi concluded.
Former player of Bangladesh National Football team Hasanuzzaman Khan Bablu said, “The officials of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF), the club officials, and all those having relation with football all are responsible for the disaster.”
Bablu said, “BFF should arrange age group football competitions such as Under-10, Under-14, Under-16, Under-19, Under-22.”
He said, “BFF should meticulously follow the FIFA and the AFC prescriptions.”
He strongly demanded to keep sports out of politics.
He also added that it was very necessary to restore the School Football Tournaments as it was staged earlier.
Football critic Ameer Hamzah said, “Management crisis in BFF is solely responsible for the disastrous performance of Bangladesh National Football team.”
He said, “A British football coach said, ” Three things are very important for the booters. Number One is physical fitness, Number Two is concentration of mind on the pitch and Number Three is conviction to win.”
He added that it was unfortunate that we could not find any of these qualities in Bangladesh footballers.
