School football back

A St Joseph's player tries to gain control of the ball during their 4-3 defeat of Sena Palli High School in the Dhaka Metropolis School football tournament at the Birshreshtha Mostafa Kamal Stadium yesterday.Photo: STAR

After a four year hiatus, budding booters finally got a chance to play competitive football as the third edition of the Dhaka Metropolis School Football Tournament got underway yesterday at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium.
In the opening match, St Joseph High School defeated Sena Palli High School 4-3 in a tiebreaker after regulation time ended in a 1-1 draw.
But the start of the tournament provides a chance to reflect on the state of the game for school kids in the country. It seems that the boys are not as lucky as their female counterparts, as the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) is seemingly interested in a regular Dhaka Metropolis Women's School tournament instead of a boys tournament, which has previously produced players like Shahedul Alam who played for Abahani and the national side.
The Kazi Salahuddin-led football committee have held three successive women's school tournament since their inception in 2008 but this is the first time they have started the Dhaka Metropolis School (Boys) tournament, which was last held in 2005. The first-ever Dhaka Metropolis School tournament was held in 2003 under the supervision of former footballer Ashrafuddin Ahmed Chunnu.
Speaking to the young players yesterday, their sentiment was very clear; they all wanted football to take place regularly as it would give them a chance to play competitive matches.
“At school, we have nine to 10 football teams and we play each other regularly but we could not get any chance to play competitive football outside the school,” said Abdullah Al Mamun, a student of BAF Shaheen School and College.
Mamun said that he was excited to play for his school as he was going to play his second school tournament after playing the first meet of the inter-BAF Shaheen School tournament.
“If I get the opportunity regularly, I will continue to play football,” said Asif Shahriar, a student from the same school.
Students of Haider Ali High School informed that they always practice football and are well prepared to fight it out. Shafiuddin, a games teacher of Haider Ali High School, informed that his school always participates in the national meet likes football, cricket, kabaddi, a discipline where they finished runners-up last season.
However, every school in the tournament is not well prepared as games teacher Anisur Rahman of Jatrabari Ideal High School said that they could hardly take preparation as they were informed about the tournament in the eleventh hour.