The Bangladesh Football Federation has started identifying the reasons behind the Bangladesh Under-16 national football team’s shameful semi-final exit from the 2nd SAFF U-16 Football Championship after suffering a 5-1 defeat against hosts Nepal.
The governing body, along with its president Kazi Salahuddin expressed their collective disappointment with the outcome in Nepal and desperately wants to find out why the age-level teams regularly fall short in the international arena.
Salahuddin, who is also the president of SAFF, was distressed with the loss over Nepal and inquired for an explanation from the BFF’s technical director Zubair Nipu on Sunday.
‘I was very distraught with the result. We will try to find out what is the actual cause behind this. I already talked with some concerned people,’ said Salahuddin on Sunday.
‘Personally, I don’t want to send any unprepared team abroad to participate in the international events,’ said an agitated Salahuddin when he was asked about the participation of the U-16 side in the forthcoming Asian Football Confederation’s U-16 tournament at Kyrgyzstan in September.
‘I have not yet decided whether to send the team or not. Actually I am not interested to send any team due to their recent debacles,’ he said.
However, Salahuddin should also hold himself accountable, among others, for the recent failures of the U-16 side as he has failed to establish a single youth football academy in his five-year tenure as president of the football governing body.
Nepal, on the other hand, already have four youth academies and are on the brink of inaugurating a fifth one.
The BFF was unable to start the Sylhet Football Academy even after receiving financial and technical assistance from FIFA as the highest body of world football already allocated $1.5 lakh to BFF for the purpose of running the academy.
A lack of facilities is also being cited as one of the reasons behind the U-16 side’s listless last-four display.
On a couple of occasions, they were accommodated in the dormitory of the Maulana Bhasani National Stadium while sometimes they were put up in the Wari Club camp, where seven-eight players stayed together in a single room.
On top of that, Dutchman Rene Koster, the youth coach took over charge on July 13, just five days before the team left for Dhaka.
Koster said that three footballers in his team were very talented but the other players were not prepared, both mentally and physically to grind it out against top opponents.
‘Three players are high-quality footballers but the others are not ready to represent the national team. Especially, the goalkeepers are horrible,’ said Koster quoted by Nipu.
-With New Age input
