The key senior players of Bangladesh women’s football team have boycotted training under head coach Peter Butler. They also threatened to quit football if Butler continues in his role. Monika Chakma was the first to speak up against Butler after Bangladesh’s underwhelming performance against Pakistan in the first match of the 2024 SAFF Championship in October. The industrious midfielder gave an exclusive interview to Dhaka Tribune where she shed light on the rift between the coach and players that has rocked the country’s football fraternity.
You first spoke up against Butler. How and when did this problem start?
It didn’t happen in one day. It started before we went to the SAFF Championship. After practice he (Butler) told us, “None of you are superstar here”. When did we say we were superstars? We heard this from him. He used to tell this often. At one time, we players became disappointed. We are not superstars. We never told him we are superstars. He used this language most of the time. He also didn’t give importance to injured players like Masura Parvin, Maria Manda, Sanjida Akhter and me. He never asked me about my injury. He also interfered in our personal matters.
So Butler is different than the coaches you have had before...
There is a lot of difference. The previous coaches told us to ignore outside affairs and give 100% on the pitch. But he (Butler) reminded us where we visited, what we did and why we did. He started this even before practice. For instance, we went to the field with lipstick, he made a comment about this.
Did you inform this to the federation?
We informed this to the federation as soon as this problem started. We informed this a hundred times. They told us to finish the tournament (SAFF Championship) and then they will take the steps. We went to Nepal with a lot of problems.
You spoke against him after the first game. How did things change after that?
We won 6-0 against Pakistan in 2022. We narrowly earned a draw against them in 2024. The logic was that if we accepted the way he formed the team (against Pakistan) we wouldn’t have ended up becoming champions. We fought against him for the sake of the country. We were very much determined.
Did the relation between the players and coach worsen after this?
Yes. I told the media that the coach doesn’t like the senior players. After this, whenever he got the chance he called us “senior girls”, “junior girls”, “conference Monika”, stuff like this. He continued this until the match against India where he fielded the players of our choice. We won the game 3-1. He became silent.
What happened after the triumphant SAFF campaign?
We fought a lot. We didn’t reveal this to the media. We were instructed to be silent as we became champions. The coach didn’t sit in any meeting with us after the tournament, like we used to see under previous coaches before. We used to submit our reports regarding what we learned, but it didn’t happen with him.
When was the decision taken to stop training under Butler?
If we accept everything he told us, we would never improve. We all decided not to practice under him. We informed this to the Bangladesh Football Federation after the SAFF Championship, and before his contract was extended. BFF said they will provide a solution. We knew that his deal would expire on December 31, 2024. We thought BFF wouldn’t renew his contract because they gave us the word to solve this issue. But they renewed his deal without discussing with us. We told BFF many times that we wouldn’t continue under Butler. Now we won’t join his practice.
The players have also floated the idea of retirement if Butler stays...
What will we do? BFF has to provide a solution after the problem arose. Either he will stay or we stay because we won’t train under him. He used bad words. We can’t practice around him with lots of such problems. We can’t accept this.