An aggrieved Bangladesh Coaches Association has asked Bangladesh Football Federation president Kazi Salahuddin to withdraw a recent statement about local coaches being jealous of foreign coaches at a press conference at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
The coaches said being that as they are guardians of the nation’s football, such derogatory comments from the federation president were an insult, had tarnished their reputations and was unexpected.
A paper provided at the press conference revealed that Salahudddin, talking with the media after Bangladesh’s disastrous performance at the Saff Championship, said that the local coaches are jealous of foreign coaches and do not have the credentials to be critical of the foreigners. The president is also supposed to have said that local coaches were of lower quality and that was the reason Abahani and Sheikh Jamal had brought in foreign coaches.
The officials claimed that since independence, Bangladesh football has grown under local coaches like Shaheb Ali, Ali Imam, Abdur Rahim, Gafur Beluch, Bazlu, Tipu, Gazi, Selim and Amalesh Sen. They further pointed out that Salahuddin himself had been a coach and that the current crop of local coaches were continuing the work of developing the game in the country.
The officials went on to add that none of the local coaches had directly criticized the foreign coaches and that no coach should criticize another’s approach. Furthermore, local coaches had won trophies both at home and abroad and all three local titles and the league were won by local coaches last season.
Hasanuzzaman Khan Bablu, the president of the association said it was very painful for him. “We did not expect such words from Salahuddin. It was defamatory for all the coaches of the country. I admire Salahuddin as the most popular footballer of the country, but he should have thought twice before saying such things” said Bablu, a former national player and a national coach also.
General secretary of the Association Satyajit Das Rupu said they just want the withdrawal. “We are not setting any deadline or terms - our only demand is the withdrawal of the statement.”
