Paul Smalley left the job of the technical and strategic director of Bangladesh Football Federation after three years and left the country on Sunday night after failing to extend his stay with another long-term contract.
The BFF initially appointed Smalley in August, 2016 with a two-year contract before extending the deal for another year which ended in August this year. Smalley had been working on an ad-hoc basis for the last two months.
“He (Smalley) is leaving tonight. I personally thanked him for his effort, hard-work and thinking,” said BFF president Kazi Salahuddin at a press conference at the BFF House yesterday.
“We worked with him in the last three years and the development of Bangladesh football was evident during that time. He did a tremendous amount of work in coaches’ education and the miracle-like development in women’s football,” added Salahuddin.
“It is a bad time as well as a pleading time for me. Bad time because I feel that it is time to leave and pleasant that we accomplished a lot of things in the last three years,” said Smalley.
It was learned that Smalley demanded a high salary and a long-term contract for three-four years but the country’s football governing body found it “unwise" to accept the offer as the BFF election is due in April next year.
