BFF outlines four-year calendar, emphasis on youth football

Placing utmost emphasis on the development of youth football in the country, Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) on Saturday unveiled a long-term plan with a four-year calendar filled with domestic competitions and youth football activities. The much talked about “master plan” will be effective from January, 2017 and the football federation has termed its new plan “phase three”, mentioning that the first two phases have already been conducted during the eight-year reign of current president Kazi Salahuddin. With the motto of “One Game, One Vision, One Dream”, the latest plan firmly focuses on “engaging and enriching the next generation” but it has no definite mention of its plan with the country's sole football academy in Sylhet that has been out of activity for quite a while now. The BFF has set its focus on eight “key technical pillars" including player development, coach education and development, competitions, referee development, medical and sports science, professional clubs and leagues, women's football and grass-root levels.With the unveiling of the annual calendar for the next four seasons, the plan revealed key areas, activities and targets for 2017 and 2018. The key areas and activities for next year includes residency programmes of under-14, 16, 18 and 19 youth tournaments involving premier league and second-tier clubs, grass-roots level coach education and development programmes, different division and district competitions of U-12, 14, 16 and 18 boys and girls' age groups and school football festivals. The majority of the activities are the same as 2018.According to the annual calendar of four years, the professional football season will kick off in May with the Federation Cup. Bangladesh Premier League and Bangladesh Championship League will be held simultaneously from June-October, followed by the season-ending tournament, the Independence Cup, in November. The First Division League will run from May-July, the second division from January-March and the third division from August-November. The U-16 Pioneer Football Tournament will be held in April-May. Among youth tournaments, the National U-18 District Championship, formerly known as Sohrawardi Cup, will take place at the start of the year in February and March, along with the National District School Championship and the U-16 Divisional Age-Group Tournament. The District Football Association will be given six months time from April-September to complete the District Club Football League. U-18 divisional age-level tournaments will be held in September and October. An U-18 youth competition will be held in the last two months of the year. U-14, 16 and 19 National Women’s Football Championship will be held in April, August and October respectively followed by the National Women’s Championship in November. The BFF also included Bangabandhu Gold Cup and Sheikh Kamal International Club Cup in the calendar for four years. These two international tournaments have been hosted and organised by the football federation. Admitting the limitations and struggles of domestic clubs, BFF boss Salahuddin, while unveiling the plan, said, “We prepared the plan after discussing with all key stakeholders of the country’s football, including clubs and DFA officials. We had to sit for three-four executive committee meetings before finalising it.” He added, “Different new youth tournaments have been added to the calendar and it will be permanent in the next four years. What's new, you ask me? We are fixing the time of all football activity. We are taking firm steps and I promise, it will be followed strictly.” Meanwhile, BFF technical and strategical director Paul Smalley said, “Youth development is key priority. Giving responsibility to the clubs for their young players development, grass-root and school football are the other key priorities. Coach development and women’s football are also key priorities.” He continued, “We got to be extremely serious for the development of league players. But we got to find players. We have to make sure the way we identify and recruit the best players, both male and female. We will be quite visible throughout Bangladesh to make sure we have the best players.”