SAFF Women's Championship 2022
‘Girls tend to be strong by default when it comes to playing football’
AKM Saiful Bari Titu, interim head coach to the Bangladesh National Women’s Football team, speaks about his experience coaching the team, their recent performances, and what can be done to take them further, in an interview with Afia Jahin of The Daily Star.
Stealing the applause and appreciation
What could be the psyche behind this ugly practice of stealing the limelight despite having no intellectual, technical, moral or effective input in any of the 23 goals that our girls scored in Kathmandu?
Why our women footballers’ victory is so significant
Our national women’s football team’s victory surely gives us all, especially the women, an extraordinary level of confidence.
SAFF champions' treatment shows how we devalue women
To be seen, to simply exist and take up space – on sporting fields, in courts of justice, on buses and in public office – shouldn’t have to be a revolutionary act.
'Aspiring girls won't face barriers anymore'
Sanjida Akhter has been one of the poster girls of Bangladesh football since she began her journey with Bangladesh's Under-16 side in 2014. The 21-year-old forward, now studying economics at a private university but struggling to attend classes due to training sessions, became the centre of discussion after an emotional Facebook status ahead of the SAFF Women's Championship final won the nation's hearts. The Daily Star's Anisur Rahman talked to her regarding that status alongside different aspects of women's football. The excerpts are below:
Ritu Porna suffers head injury in open-top bus ride, gets three stitches
Bangladesh women’s football team’s member Ritu Porna Chakma hurt her head in a collision with an overhead banner during the team’s open-top bus parade as the team returned to a hero’s welcome on Wednesday.
Sabina dedicates trophy to entire nation
Bangladesh captain Sabina Khatun dedicated the SAFF Women’s Championship trophy to the nation during an impromptu press conference at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport upon their arrival from Kathmandu on Wednesday afternoon.
'Felt the breeze of Bengal after many days'
Member of Bangladesh's SAFF Women's Championship-winning team, Krishna Rani Sarkar, was delighted to have returned home on Wednesday after their successful SAFF campaign.
Champions return home
Bangladesh women footballers, who clinched their maiden SAFF Women’s Championship title by beating hosts Nepal in the tournament’s final in Kathmandu last Monday, returned to the country on Wednesday afternoon.
From childhood heartbreak to fulfilling a nation’s dream
On what was a regular afternoon, a little girl growing up in a poverty-stricken background only insisted on playing her favourite game of football. Her mother, though, under continuous pressure from the surrounding community, took a knife and resorted to puncturing her favourite toy, a football in this case, right in front of those innocent, teary eyes.
Tenacious Maria Manda
A common scene preceding a friendly neighbourhood football match is random players gathering and two seniors-turn-captains taking turns in picking the players. Usually, the top strikers are recruited first, followed by playmakers, wingers, and so on.
A win for the dreamers
We need to invest in our women and change how we view their participation in sports
Don't steal her thunder: Salahuddin asks media to focus on victorious team
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin has asked media and fans to give all the focus on the SAFF Women's Championship team during a press briefing arranged at the BFF house on Tuesday, explaining reasons his reasons for not being in Kathmandu on the match day.
When 100 Bangladeshi voices were heard amid 20,000 local fans
‘’Our eleven girls fought against eleven oppositions players on the field, but we were only around 100 Bangladeshi up against 20,000 local fans,” Arif Islam, one of the fortunate ones who got the opportunity to witness the Bangladesh team’s historic triumph from the stands at Kathmandu’s Dasarath Stadium on Monday, shared his ‘once-in-a-lifetime experience’ with The Daily Star today.
SAFF defeat fallout: Nepal coach resigns, three players retire
Nepal women’s team coach resigned while three senior players of the team retired following their 3-1 defeat against Bangladesh in the final of the SAFF Women’s Championship on Monday.
Receptions await victorious girls
“We enjoyed a lot last night after a lot of hard work… We danced together to celebrate the victory,” Maria Manda told The Daily Star over phone from the breakfast table at the team hotel in Kathmandu on Tuesday morning, following their SAFF Championship final victory over Nepal the previous night.
‘No one knows how hard the girls toiled’
"We had a dream of winning the SAFF Women's Championship but we could not do it. The dream finally came true through this group of brilliant girls," was the instant reaction from former national striker Suinu Pru Marma, who represented Bangladesh in the first three editions of the regional women's football extravaganza.
Tigresses thrash Scotland after congratulating Sabina and Co for SAFF triumph
Off-spinner Sohely Akhter and skipper Nigar Sultana Joty helped Bangladesh beat Scotland convincingly in their ICC Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier encounter in Abu Dhabi on Monday.
Take a bow - Women in red and green
What started as an experimental idea less than two decades ago against the backdrop of heavy resistance from sections of a conservative society helped Bangladesh lift the biggest prize in South Asian football since 2003 as Bangladesh clinched the title of the SAFF Women’s Championship,