Only good management can raise standard of football: Tarafdar
He urges BFF to make concerted efforts to improve the game
SPORTS REPORTER, Dhaka
Tarafdar Mohammad Ruhul Amin, a prominent sports organiser-cum-patron, iterated his call to take genuine and positive steps to develop football in the country.
He said this at a view-exchange programme with sports journalists at the Bangladesh Sports Journalists Association (BSJA) office in the capital yesterday. Swadhain Bangla football team captain Zakaria Pintu and a number of ex-national footballers, including Kaiser Hamid, Sheikh Mohammed Aslam, Hasanuzzaman Bablu, and football organisers were present on the occasion.
Tarafdar is the president of the District and Divisional Football Association as well as chairman of the Premier League Clubs Association.
He disclosed that the two associations have nominated him to run for presidency in the next elections of the BFF in April.
He said it is the prime duty of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) to chalk out schemes to build up footballers for future.
The BFF should keep sufficient players in the pipeline so that we do not face scarcity of footballers in the national team. But unfortunately, the present committee of the BFF hardly pays attention to this. The main reason behind it is poor management skills. I think the present BFF committee has zero management skills. It should build up a strong foundation from the grassroots level or sustainable structure to see a positive outcome from all over the country, he said.
Im sorry to say, it doesnt bother to monitor the development of district-level football. You will be surprised to know that the district level football league is not held regularly due to funds crunch. Players hardly show any interest to play in the district league as their teams could not offer the minimum royalty to encourage them to come to the field and play football, he added.
I love football with my heart and dont hesitate to spend money for development of the game. I have formed and run two teams for the Bangladesh Premier League. One of them, the Saif Sporting Club, is doing good at the top level. Barring four or five teams, other Premier League clubs are unable to form good teams because they cannot arrange sufficient funds or good sponsors, he observed.
Aware of this, he came forward to provide monetary help from his company, Saif Powertec Limited, to the Champions League (Premier League tier II) first division and second division teams, to compete in the league. Not only in the capital, I moved around the country to run the district football league. In 2018, I offered financial help to 48 districts to organise the league and in the last season more districts came under my financial network, he said.
From the 2018 league, Tarafdars monitoring committee selected 50 players under 20 to attend a coaching programme. A number of players have improved their skills through the district league and are able to play in the Bangladesh Premier or First Division league. I promise to continue my efforts for the betterment of football, he said.
In the FIFA rankings, Bangladesh is at 187 out of 210 nations. However, I dont believe that FIFA rankings are the barometer to judge the standard of football of a country. Only a good management can find a proper coach of international standard suitable for Bangladesh. A good technical committee formed with ex-national players can do the job, he also said.
Im repeatedly saying owing to lack of proper management skills, the BFF failed to invite good teams for the recently held Bangabandhu Gold Cup Tournament. Since the soccer crazy fans of the country are aware of the standard of the participating teams, there was no big rush to watch the matches of the tournament, he added.
