Football organiser Ledu tells The Independent
Conflict between DSA and DFA should stop immediately
He identifies it as one of the main reasons to lose popularity
Md Anwar Ullah, Ctg
Nazrul Islam Ledu, popularly known as Ledu Bhai in the countrys football arena, specially in the Port City, is a legendary sports personality, who has been contributing for football for last 42 years.
Nazrul Islam, despite not playing in the countrys top level football or in the national team but he produced a lot of players who still are playing for the national team.
Nazrul Islam Ledu could not sustain his playing career more than eight years due to injury problem. He played mainly in Chittagong League for all the premier teams Mohammedan, Abahani, Brothers, Customs and City Corporation between 1975 and 1983.
The veteran football coach, who began his coaching career in 1984 when was forced to be irregular in the field as player due to knee injury.
In his 42 years close association with the football as a player and a coach thinks Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has to take the proper initiative to create a real source of getting footballers.
Ledu also stated from his long experience that BFF will have to go grassroots and should guide the districts in proper way to run their respective leagues flawlessly.
To get rid of the present crisis of football, I mean the downtrend of footballers quality, not having pipeline of future players and finally to regain the popularity of the game in the country BFF should take necessary steps with begin the national championship like Suhrawardi Cup and Sher-e-Bangladesh Cup very immediately simultaneously with the district leagues.
To have quality and as well as a large number of players, the most important footstep are proper nursing of the players from age group and to run the district footballs strongly, said Ledu.
Another important subject is the conflict between DFA and DSA, it is one of the foremost reasons not continue the district football leagues.
If possible the DFA should be closed or the DFA and the DSA will have to work together, otherwise it would be quite impossible to run the district football smoothly.
If I tell about the Chittagong DFA and DSA, here the main man of both the organisations is same person, so there is no scope of conflict between these two organisations. But the scenario is not same as across the country.
Ledu also identified some other reasons of not having footballers are - totally stopover the school football championships across the country, closing down players quota in the higher education, specially, in the universities, job opportunities in different government and private sectors and corporate houses.
You see, now a days there is rare scope to take the sports as profession, because, the institutions or the government sectors, like Customs, BJMC, Railway, PWD, WAPDA, Banks, Jute Mills, Fire Service and some organisations have closed their players quota.
He urged the government to reintroduce quota system not only in football but also in other games to develop and produce quality sportsmen.
Ledu, who also coached Fakirerpool Young Mens Club Dhaka in 1993-96 and the team promoted into premier division. Then returned to Chittagong and again joined Fakirerpool in 2002 and again the team promoted into premier league.
But I had to return to Chittagong again for my family reason and did not go back to Dhaka, despite having opportunity, then I took the charge of Chittagong Mohammedan and the team won the league trophy for three times, said Ledu.
