Football in the women's circuit has received a welcome boost from some inspiring examples from the international football stage.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports awarded a cheque of Tk 1 crore today to the Bangladesh women’s football team for winning the SAFF Women’s Championship 2024 in Kathmandu, Nepal yesterday.
All the matches will take place at the Dasrath Stadium in Kathmandu, where Bangladesh won their first regional title of Women's SAFF, beating the hosts 3-1 in the final of the last edition in 2022.
“They are very talented. I firmly believe they will represent Bangladesh national team in future,” said Bangladesh Under-20 team coach Maruful Haque after returning home.
Bangladesh are looking forward to back-to-back wins in the SAFF U-20 Championship when they take on hosts Nepal in Group A’s decisive match at the ANFA Complex in Lalitpur, Nepal today.
The regional women's football extravaganza will be held from October 17-30 at Dashrath Stadium in Kathmandu.
Bangladesh will play against defending champions India in the group stages of two SAFF age-level tournaments for boys which will be held in September in Nepal and Bhutan.
India re-evaluated themselves against skilled Asian teams, having repelled Lebanon in similar fashion in the semi-finals, but what will the rest of the South Asian participating nations take away from the tournament? From here on, how do they gauge their standards relative to India’s ever-accelerating progress?
Before taking to the ground for the warm-up session at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru ahead of the SAFF Championship semifinal against Kuwait, Bangladesh right-back Bishwanath Ghosh announced that he would distribute Tk 5 lakh among his teammates as a bonus if they could make it to the final for the first time in 18 years.
Rajani Kanta Barman is a bright star in the country’s footballing sky, having captained Bangladesh in their maiden SAFF Championship title in 2003 – the only one till date. Rajani was also part of the Bangladesh team that bagged gold in 1999 South Asian Games. The ever-reliable defender called time as a professional footballer in 2016 and was involved in a brief coaching stint afterwards. In an exclusive interview with Sabbir Hossain of The Daily Star, Rajani looked back on the successful 2003 campaign, gave his views on the current state of the national team, and what the upcoming SAFF Championship might have in store for Bangladesh. The excerpts are as follows:
The passion and excitement that the South Asian Football Championship and its precursor, the South Asian Games football event, used to evoke has somewhat faded over the last two decades.
Kazi Salahuddin, the four-time president of South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), has had his long-cherished dream fulfilled as the SAFF Club Championship is finally taking shape.
Why do female sportspeople have to prove themselves “worthy” of the support their male counterparts can take for granted?
Bangladesh coach Paul Smalley anticipates a closely contested affair as his charges are up against hosts India in the SAFF U-20 Championship final, scheduled to take place at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar tonight at BST 7:30pm.
