Football in Bangladesh

Besides cricket, football is a very popular sport in Bangladesh although it is under neglect from both the government and authorities including the country’s football federation Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF).

Compared to the past, the standard of Bangladeshi football has degraded due to mismanagement, lack of support and poor investment. An interest in cricket resulting from the nation’s success in test cricket and participation in the World Cup overshadowed the past fame in the nation’s football. But however this did not affect football’s popularity: more football tournaments are organized in and outside Dhaka than of any other sports and football fever grips the nation during every FIFA World Cup. Federation officials and experts are still hopeful about the development of football in the country in the next ten years despite financial obstacles and lack of professionalism.



History
History tells us why football is still popular in the country. During the liberation war in 1971, football was the way to create international awareness of the war of independence: the establishment of the Swadhin Bangla Football Team which played 16 matches in India and was officially received by the BFF in 2009.

The time before the 90s saw national soccer fever in league football specifically in the Dhaka League, which possessed club teams famous home and abroad. League football was popular even before independence, from the 1940s to 1960s under Pakistan.There were quite a number of premier football clubs in Dhaka, in the 40s, most prominent among them were Dhaka Wanderers, Victoria SC, Wari Club, Mohammedan SC, EP Gymkhana, Railways, and Fire service. Match between East Pakistan Governors XI vs. West Bengal XI was held at Dhaka in the late forties. The first Dhaka League was won by Bangladeshi Victoria SC in 1948, three years prior to the Mother Language Movement when still under Pakistani rule. Football was played both in the domestic leagues and abroad. Bangladeshi clubs such as BKSP and Bangladesh Red played with success in international football tournaments like Aga Khan Gold Cup, President Gold Cup, Dana Cup and Gothia Cup. BKSP won the later two in 1990 while Bangladesh Red were runners-up in the first President Gold Cup in 1981 and won it in 1989. Except that, Bangladeshi clubs bagged three more titles abroad: Quaid-E-Azam Trophy of Pakistan in 1985, Four-nation invitational tournament of Myanmar in 1995 and Jigme Dorji Wangchuk Memorial Football of Bhutan in 2003.

Bangladesh’s best player of all times is Kazi Salahuddin, who played professional football in Hong Kong in 1979 and is now president of the BFF.

After BFF’s establishment in 1972 the national team played their first international against Thailand in the 1973 Merdeka tournament in Malaysia. After its membership with FIFA in 1974 and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the national team participated in the 1980 AFC Asian Cup finals and the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. But the nation’s best results came at South Asian level where it won the SAFF Championship once and were gold medalists in South Asian Games twice.

Recent ten years saw a series of changes in national head coaches and many famous coaches like the Austrian György Kottán and German Otto Pfister, who coached Ivory Coast to their first FIFA World Cup finals in 2006. Not giving enough time to coaches might be one the reasons behind the country’s degrading football.

However in 2006 Bangladesh reached the quarterfinals of AFC Challenge Cup under Argentine coach Andres Cruciani and in 2010 Bangladesh won the 11th South Asian Games on home soil under the Serbian Zoran Djordjevic, who left in February the same year.

The Federation
Main article: Bangladesh Football Federation

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) was established on 15 July 1972 and has been a member of the FIFA since 1974 and of AFC in 1973. The federation is responsible for organising all club championships and the professional league. It is currently working with AFC’s Vision Asia programme to improve the domestic football infrastructure. The BFF is presided by Kazi Salahuddin since April 2008.

Women's Football
In a country whose population is predominantly Muslim and there is some resistance towards women’s football. The women’s game has struggled to gain a foothold in Bangladesh in the past and many tournaments dedicated to women have failed. Women's football finally saw light in Bangladesh when the first ever women's football tournament was staged under the Vision Asia programme in November 2007. Eight teams especially from different district's all over the country took part in the tournament and made it a success amidst security threats.

In October 2008, first women's school football tournament was held under the Vision Bangladesh programme with BFF hopeful of continuing and developing the women's game in the country.

Women's football was included in the South Asian Games 2010 hosted in Dhaka while the first Women's SAFF Championship is to be held in December in the country. Bangladesh had their first team in the AFC U-19 Women's Championship qualifiers with India, Jordan and Iran in their group.

Former Players

 * Kazi Salahuddin
 * Salam Murshedi
 * Ashrafuddin Chunnu
 * Shahidur Rahman Shantu
 * Abdul Karim Rahman Tajmul
 * Jahidul Islam
 * Imran Ahmed Abedin
 * Hamzah Uddin Haque
 * Sheikh Aslam
 * Sayeed Hassan Kanan
 * Yazid Miah Choudhury
 * Syed Abdus Samad
 * Kaiser Hamid
 * Arif Khan Joy
 * Sam Warren

Star Players

 * Aminul Haque (Mohammedan SC)
 * Mohammed Waly Faisal(Abahani Limited)
 * Rajanti Kanta Barman (Muktijoddha SKS)
 * Aziz Al-Arman (Muktijoddha SKS)
 * Hassan Al Mamun (Muktijoddha SKS)
 * Jahid Hasan Emily (Abahani Limited)

Clubs, Leagues and Championships
For more details on this topic, see List of football clubs in Bangladesh

Clubs
Successful ones among earlier clubs are BKSP and Dhaka Wanderers, Victoria SC, Wari Club, East Pakistan Gymkhana and Azad SC Among a total of 4100 clubs, the most renowned clubs today are namely Abahani Limited, Mohammedan SC, Muktijoddha SKS, Brothers Union and Sheikh Russel KC.

Domestic Tournaments

 * Bangladesh League, formerly known as B.League, is the national pro league and the top-tier league in Bangladeshi football. Before that, the Dhaka League was the most renowned and top-tier football league.
 * National Football Championship is the second-tier football league replaced by the pro league in 2007 as the top-tier league.
 * Federation Cup is the top national cup competition.
 * Super Cup is highest budgeted football tournament organised by BFF.

Other regional leagues include the Chittagong League, Rajshahi League, Cox's Bazar League and the Comilla League.

International Tournaments

 * SAFF Championship
 * AFC Challenge Cup
 * South Asian Games
 * AFC President's Cup (club)

National Team Achievements
see Bangladesh national football team

FIFA's Goal Programme
"On March 4 2002, the Goal Bureau approved the construction of the headquarters for the national association and technical centre in Dhaka. The new building with modern facilities, including accommodations, a library and an archive will help the national association to efficiently handle day-to-day operations, plan new programmes and coordinate the playing calendar while also taking care of range of other activities. Players from various national teams can be accommodated at the technical centre during training and preparation camps. The library and archives containing books, historic documents, newspapers and magazines are open to public. The complex therefore also serves as a meeting point for the extended football family in Bangladesh. Funds from Goal and the FIFA Financial Assistance Programme paid for the facilities to be built on land donated by the government", stated by FIFA's first Goal project.

Popularity, Fanship and Media
As mentioned at the beginning football is very popular in Bangladesh but the federation failed to use this popularity in the development of the sport’s infrastructure. Football tournaments of all kinds are played all over Bangladesh. Since the first broadcast of FIFA World Cup finals in Bangladesh, the people celebrate the tradition of hoisting national flags of teams they support in the World Cup. Recent times have seen the increasing popularity of the tournament in the nation’s media and an increase in the sell of favourite teams’ jerseys and flags and watching matches live on big screen in the locality or on television at home. The scene of locals attending their favourite clubs’ matches and cheering in the gallery is quite rarer than in the past but a high voltage clash between arch-rivals Abahani Limited and Mohammedan SC is still a match to watch for. The recent popularity of European club football leagues such as English Premier League or the Spanish La Liga is the key craze for football in urban areas.

In 2009 Bangladesh’s first sports movie Jaago which gained much appreciation and popularity was produced to promote football in the country. There are many blogs and websites developing in the recent years to provide news and discussion on the country’s football.