AKM Saiful Bari Titu, interim head coach to the Bangladesh National Women’s Football team, speaks about his experience coaching the team, their recent performances, and what can be done to take them further, in an interview with Afia Jahin of The Daily Star.

What could be the psyche behind this ugly practice of stealing the limelight despite having no intellectual, technical, moral or effective input in any of the 23 goals that our girls scored in Kathmandu?

Our national women’s football team’s victory surely gives us all, especially the women, an extraordinary level of confidence.

To be seen, to simply exist and take up space – on sporting fields, in courts of justice, on buses and in public office – shouldn’t have to be a revolutionary act.

Sanjida Akhter has been one of the poster girls of Bangladesh football since she began her journey with Bangladesh's Under-16 side in 2014. The 21-year-old forward, now studying economics at a private university but struggling to attend classes due to training sessions, became the centre of discussion after an emotional Facebook status ahead of the SAFF Women's Championship final won the nation's hearts. The Daily Star's Anisur Rahman talked to her regarding that status alongside different aspects of women's football. The excerpts are below:

Bangladesh women’s football team’s member Ritu Porna Chakma hurt her head in a collision with an overhead banner during the team’s open-top bus parade as the team returned to a hero’s welcome on Wednesday.

Bangladesh captain Sabina Khatun dedicated the SAFF Women’s Championship trophy to the nation during an impromptu press conference at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport upon their arrival from Kathmandu on Wednesday afternoon.

Member of Bangladesh's SAFF Women's Championship-winning team, Krishna Rani Sarkar, was delighted to have returned home on Wednesday after their successful SAFF campaign.

Bangladesh women footballers, who clinched their maiden SAFF Women’s Championship title by beating hosts Nepal in the tournament’s final in Kathmandu last Monday, returned to the country on Wednesday afternoon.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Wednesday announced a cash reward of Tk 50 lakh for the National Women's Football Team that on Monday became champions in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Women's Championship for the first time.

On what was a regular afternoon, a little girl growing up in a poverty-stricken background only insisted on playing her favourite game of football. Her mother, though, under continuous pressure from the surrounding community, took a knife and resorted to puncturing her favourite toy, a football in this case, right in front of those innocent, teary eyes.

A common scene preceding a friendly neighbourhood football match is random players gathering and two seniors-turn-captains taking turns in picking the players. Usually, the top strikers are recruited first, followed by playmakers, wingers, and so on. 

We need to invest in our women and change how we view their participation in sports

Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin has asked media and fans to give all the focus on the SAFF Women's Championship team during a press briefing arranged at the BFF house on Tuesday, explaining reasons his reasons for not being in Kathmandu on the match day.

‘’Our eleven girls fought against eleven oppositions players on the field, but we were only around 100 Bangladeshi up against 20,000 local fans,” Arif Islam, one of the fortunate ones who got the opportunity to witness the Bangladesh team’s historic triumph from the stands at Kathmandu’s Dasarath Stadium on Monday, shared his ‘once-in-a-lifetime experience’ with The Daily Star today.

Nepal women’s team coach resigned while three senior players of the team retired following their 3-1 defeat against Bangladesh in the final of the SAFF Women’s Championship on Monday.

“We enjoyed a lot last night after a lot of hard work… We danced together to celebrate the victory,” Maria Manda told The Daily Star over phone from the breakfast table at the team hotel in Kathmandu on Tuesday morning, following their SAFF Championship final victory over Nepal the previous night.

"We had a dream of winning the SAFF Women's Championship but we could not do it. The dream finally came true through this group of brilliant girls," was the instant reaction from former national striker Suinu Pru Marma, who represented Bangladesh in the first three editions of the regional women's football extravaganza.

Off-spinner Sohely Akhter and skipper Nigar Sultana Joty helped Bangladesh beat Scotland convincingly in their ICC Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier encounter in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

What started as an experimental idea less than two decades ago against the backdrop of heavy resistance from sections of a conservative society helped Bangladesh lift the biggest prize in South Asian football since 2003 as Bangladesh clinched the title of the SAFF Women’s Championship,