Five things we learned from this tournament

Better competition, poorer organisation: The tournament featured eight teams -- two from Bangladesh, three from India and one each from Maldives, Laos and Malaysia. The level of competition was much better than the previous editions according to everyone involved, however, from an organisational point of view, the tournament left a lot to be desired. There was a clear gap in communication between the hosts, Chattogram Abahani, and the Bangladesh Football Federation, the custodians of the country’s football. Five matches in 10 days stretched the limit of resources of the teams and the constant tinkering with fixtures did not help the cause either.

Goals galore: The third edition of the tournament saw 59 goals scored in 15 matches, beating the previous record of 54 from the 2015 edition. There were only 36 goals scored in the second edition in 2017. This high-scoring scenario could be attributed to teams having better attacking resources than in defence, with the majority of the foreign players of each team being forwards.

Foreigners rule: Of the 59 goals scored, 39 were scored by foreign recruits while only 20 came from homegrown players. Only one team, Young Elephants of Laos, played without foreigners and their journey ended in the group stages. With the regulation being a maximum of five foreign players allowed on the field against a registration of six, the high number of goals by the foreigners only points to the fact that local forwards lag far behind their foreign teammates, not just in Bangladesh but also other leagues across South and South East Asia.

People love football and success: The tournament created quite a bit of excitement in Chattogram as well as other parts of the country. The matches featuring the host team drew massive crowds while the other games also saw reasonable attendance. There was widespread media coverage, even in the midst of tumultuous cricketing revelations, and the interest was not only limited to within the country, but supporters of teams from the other countries also followed their games closely on social media and other platforms.

Runners-up on hire: Chattogram Abahani, the champions of the first edition, were eliminated from the semifinals of the second edition. In 2015, the hosts won the title with most of their players hired from other clubs, and this time too, they finished second-best with only one of their own players in the starting eleven. One of the coaches termed Chattogram Abahani as an ‘artificial team’ while Chattogram Abahani coach Maruful Haque himself said that even if they won the title, it would not bring any change to either the club or the country’s football.