Who's to blame for Satkhira withdrawal?

The women's wing chairman of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF), Mahfuza Akter Kiron, lamented the fact that one of the teams withdrew and went home ahead of the semifinal of the JFA U-14 Women's National Championship on Monday.

Satkhira, the team in question, did not turn up for their semifinal against Mymensingh, the eventual champions of the tournament, and went back home over a payment issue between the team's coach and the district football association.

“We did not have any prior knowledge about the issue. We only learned about it after the team [Satkhira] failed to turn up and Mymensingh were declared winners,” Kiron told The Daily Star yesterday. “Had they [Satkhira] informed us about their financial troubles, we could have solved it or at least convinced them to stay.”

Kiron informed that the BFF gave Tk 40,000 to the team in three instalments, like all the other participating teams, out of the coffer which is provided by the Japan Football Association.

The coach of the Satkhira team, Ali Akbar, claimed he had to withdraw his team from the tournament as there was no money left to run the team's expenses and that despite asking the DFA president for money repeatedly, he did not get any help.

“We were supposed to get Tk 40,000 from the DFA, part of which was to be given by the BFF. However, our team received only Tk 30,000 from the DFA. I asked for the rest of the money several times, but he [DFA president Sirajul Islam Khan] did not give any more money,” Akbar said. “As there was no money left, we tried to lose a match willingly, yet unfortunately went through to the semifinals. But it wasn't possible to continue, so I took the girls back to Satkhira.”

The DFA president, however, refuted the allegation, saying: “The coach was given Tk 52,000. Yet he wanted more money from time to time, which I did not give. He was in fact once suspended temporarily for the same reason.”

It may be mentioned here that there was Tk 50,000 and Tk 25,000 on offer for the tournament's champions and runners-up teams respectively.

A BFF spokesperson, meanwhile, told The Daily Star that Satkhira will be served with a show-cause notice by the games' governing body and the reply sent to the disciplinary committee, adding that all guidelines and procedures will be followed in case of any disciplinary action.