‘Well-organised league but lack of competition at top’

Ever since the introduction of professional football league in 2007, local coaches had been demanding disclosure of league fixtures ahead of time so that they could better prepare their sides. Those demands continued to fall into deaf ears until being materialised in the 14th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League, which concluded on Saturday.

The just-concluded league saw advanced revealing of fixtures of two separate legs, including probable pauses due to international engagements or holidays, allowing the clubs plan, prepare and execute their training, travel and other things much more smoothly than the past.

UEFA A licence holder Maruful Haque, who was always vocal in demand for advanced fixtures, termed the league as a well-organsied one.

"The league was well-organsied as the fixtures were revealed much ahead of time, allowing the coaches to complete their training cycle properly in between two matches, a system followed worldwide. I think this system should be continued in future," Maruful told The Daily Star.

For the first time, the league matches were scheduled only on Fridays and Saturdays while Tuesdays were reserved for Federation Cup fixtures, allowing the coaches to test bench strength in Federation Cup matches. This gave some clubs the luxury of bringing seven to eight changes in Federation Cup matches, three or four days after the league matches.

Explaining the reasons behind massive changes in playing eleven, Maruful said, "Each club had differing targets in league and Federation Cup. They knew who their opponents were in each of the fixtures and what their targets were. So the coaches came out of their previous habit of using fixed elevens and gave more players opportunities to play from the start."

The 53-year-old coach, however, lamented a lack of competition when it came to the title race, which he felt was a result of lack of quality players overall.

"Even though there was competition for the second position and for avoiding relegation, there was no competition for the title race. All the quality players lined up for one team, leaving the other teams compete against each other," Maruful opined. "The lack of competitiveness at the top may have an impact on the performance of the national team as well."

The experienced coach believes the impact of foreign players was felt in every position, not just in striking position.

"It is happening because of the fall of quality players in every position, not just strikers. The decisive passes in midfield were provided by foreigners; the main roles played in defence were by the foreigners; the ones creating goalscoring chances were foreigners. It has been a total drop in quality of our football compared to five to seven years ago," said the former national team coach, who has been involved with the professional league since its second edition.

In order to improve the quality of the league further, Maruful emphasised on rescheduling the timing of matches, selection of venues nearer to the capital, improvement of venues, training grounds, dressing rooms and of some other facilities.