Big dream, bigger hurdle

It was not too long ago that coach Golam Rabbani Choton called on goalkeepers Rashida Akter and Irin Khatun to form a national U-16 women's squad following their good performance in the 2014 AFC U-16 Women's Championship Qualifiers in Dhaka, but he had to give up hope on both players as they got married in the meantime.

In another incident, Choton called on the then national team captain Sui Nu Pru Marma and defender Trishna Chakma for the 2016 SAFF Women's Championship, but both experienced booters failed to turn up for the training camp as they had just given birth to babies.

Goalkeeper Taslima and defender Ruma, who were part of the winning squad of the 2015 AFC U-14 Girls' Regional Championship in Nepal, and defender Asha and forward Sadia, who were part of the winning squad of the same competition in the following year, have not been in mainstream football after being dropped either due to for poor performance or injuries.

The drop-out rate for these age-group girls is roughly 15 per cent, a fact that hinders smooth transition from age-level to senior side.

Against this reality, the euphoria created by the girls winning the SAFF U-15 Women's Championship calls for a reality check.

Bangladesh have won two editions of the now-defunct AFC U-14 Championship Girls' Regional Championship in 2015 and 2016, qualified for the final round of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship in 2016 and played admirably in the final round this year before clinching the title of the first-ever SAFF U-15 Championship on Sunday.

This was all possible due to the continuation of a programme that has been running through for the past three years. Despite a few drop-outs, most of the players have remained together, in training and have also played a few practice matches ahead of different competitions.

But what's next? That is something the game's local governing body should be focused on now to sustain and enrich the success.

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) high-ups have already declared that their target is for Bangladesh to play in the Women's World Cup at age level, but the reality is that the BFF has a long way to go to make that dream come true as there is no competitive structure in women's football in the country apart from the drop-out of footballers despite their potential.

It must be admitted here that the responsibility to ensure these things and to the take country's women's football forward doesn't solely rest with the BFF, rather the government, the professional clubs and corporate houses must come forward too.

During a reception of the under-15 team at the BFF headquarters yesterday, the federation's president Kazi Salahuddin promised to keep this group of girls together for the next four years in a bid to make the dream of playing in age-level world cups come true.

“It is not a big ambition. We have already played the FIFA U-17 World Cup Qualifiers [AFC U-16 Women's Championship] and we have been in top eight teams in Asia at that level. Now we have to come into the top three to play in the Under-20 Women's World Cup in 2020. It is a hard job but I believe it is possible,” Salahuddin said.

“I must admit that BFF can't do it single-handedly and we need financial support from the government, corporate houses and individual persons. We need only Tk 3 crore per year and the sum of Tk 12 crore is not a big deal for the government,” the BFF boss added.

When asked whether if only continuous training over the next four years will be enough to achieve that dream, Salahuddin gave some positive news: “Today I received a few phone calls from clubs, who are interested to take part in the women's professional football league, which we will start from next year. Apart from that, we are also planning to introduce an under-19 women's football league from where we will be able to judge the standard of our footballers.

“I also want to arrange 10 to 16 international matches for women's teams per year, but that number will depend on the financial ability of the BFF. We will actually give you detailed plans in the latter part of January,” added Salahuddin.

If those words turn into anything close to reality, there is reason to hope for an even brighter future in women's football. Nevertheless, they are already ensured a busy schedule in 2018 as Bangladesh will take part in the SAFF U-18 and Senior Women's Championships apart from taking part in AFC U-16 and U-19 Women's Championship Qualifiers.