Salahuddin’s quiet exit

Kazi Salahuddin's reign as the longest-serving president of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) will officially come to an end on October 26, the four-time BFF president announced in an impromptu press briefing yesterday.

The poster boy of post-independence Bangladesh football will depart after navigating through four tricky terms, leaving a legacy of corruption, mismanagement, flawed elections and failure to make good on lofty goals.

When the BFF media wing issued a message that Salahuddin would be speaking to the media at his office in a little over an hour's time, there was little doubt regarding the forthcoming announcement, considering the speculations over his position for the past few days.

Appearing at the office and in front of media for the first time since the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, the 70-year-old wasted little time over preambles before cutting straight to the chase: "I was with you for four terms. I consider myself very lucky to have had this opportunity in my life. I have decided not to contest in the upcoming elections which are due on October 26. It is my final decision."

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Salahuddin 'will not contest in BFF elections'

A close friend of Sheikh Kamal, the eldest son of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and brother of now-deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Salahuddin had expressed his desire for seeking a fifth term as president of the country's second-most affluent sporting body on its October 26 elections, even a week after Hasina's ouster.

"I am not resigning; instead, I will contest the election again because I will not leave football in the face of any threats," Salahuddin had told The Daily Star on August 12.

However, Salahuddin was getting increasingly isolated as time went by. His long-term aide Abdus Salam Murshedy, a former Awami League MP and a long-serving BFF senior vice-president, had resigned soon after the change of government while two out of the four vice-presidents – Kazi Nabil Ahmed and Mahiuddin Ahmed, both leaders of Awami League – have been missing since August 5.

Former footballers, a section of fans as well as political leaders, led by former national team captain Aminul Haque, were piling on the pressure for him to resign.

Salahuddin was feeling the heat, and there was no alleged state-mechanism to bail him out this time, hence he had to leave the pitch without a fight, even though he successfully avoided the fate of having to resign.

While he will likely have a quiet exit a month-and-a-half later, leaving the chair to someone else to run the football show, Salahuddin's legacy in Bangladesh football will certainly be a topic of discussion for a long time.

His quiet exit is a stark contrast to the euphoria and excitement that had been generated a decade-and-a-half ago when a much younger and astronomically more popular Salahuddin took office as an elected president.

One of the best footballers the country has ever produced, Salahuddin came to power when Bangladesh football was stagnating due to lack of proper planning and mismanagement.

The former captain and later a coach of the national team, Salahuddin made lofty promises to the people of the country, often very detached from reality.

His declaration that the Bangladesh men's team would play in the FIFA 2022 World Cup has been a fodder for memes over the years as the team has failed to even reach the final of the SAFF Championship, arguably the lowest rung of world football, ever since.

The men's team's standing in the FIFA rankings has plummeted to the late 190s while the women's team have failed to make much of an impact outside the SAFF region.

Although there have been successes at age-level, for both men and women, and the top-tier leagues have been held regularly, football at grassroots level has dried up, creating a top-heavy structure in the country's football.

The sponsors, who had come in droves when Salahuddin assumed responsibility, have mostly turned their backs while the spectators have largely deserted the stands, signifying the departure of domestic football from the collective conscience.

The most damaging part was perhaps the unearthing of massive corruption inside the football headquarters, something that may not have implicated Salahuddin personally yet but has damaged the reputation of Bangladesh in world football.