Home ›› 04 Apr 2023 ›› Sport
The Bangladesh National Women’s Team’s participation in the Asian Qualifiers of the Paris 2024 Olympics was abandoned last month and Bangladesh Football Federation President Kazi Salahuddin cited financial constraints as the reason.
Round 1 of the Asian Qualifiers of Paris 2024 will be held in Myanmar from Wednesday, where Bangladesh was supposed to face Iran, Maldives, and the hosts. However, it was stated that the current South Asian Champions would not be travelling to the neighbouring country as the BFF could not bear the costs of travel, accommodation, and other expenses.
BFF President Salahuddin reaffirmed in a press conference on Monday that he could not manage any funds despite trying.
“This (the tournament in Myanmar) was part of the Olympics. We thought that as the Olympics invited us, we expected to get support from them. I directly spoke with the Secretary General of the Bangladesh Olympic Association (Syed Shahed Reza), who said that they were not going to provide any money,” he said.
BFF had around three months to manage the funds but failed and the BFF president said that they had submitted a Development Project Proposal to the Ministry of Youth & Sports, which according to him, did not go through in time.
“I submitted a DPP to the Ministry of Youth & Sports, and they had 10-12 meetings with us before sending in the approval, which was later sent to the finance ministry,” Salahuddin said.
He accepted the blame too, “Honestly, I do not have the ability to manage Tk 1 crore right now. Because nobody wants to give it anymore. Also, we have a bad name in the media, which hampers us from getting money. I submitted the DPP to the ministry for three months. I was promised that it would be done.”
According to a letter from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, they recommended a budget of Tk 92 lakhs for the Women’s team’s participation in the qualifiers to the Ministry of Finance on March 30.
However, Salahuddin said that an age-level team will travel to Singapore on April 24 to play in the qualifiers for the Under-17 AFC Asian Cup.
“The team will go to the AFC matches. Those who said they would give us money, please do as the girls are going on April 24. We will accept it,” he said.
