BFF may change heart on Nayeem issue

Having criticised national football coach Syed Nayeemuddin for the past few days for his mishandling of senior players and indecent behaviour with federation staff, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has suddenly realised it would not get a foreign coach this cheap.
The economic factor might even inspire the cash-starved BFF to keep the Indian veteran for a few more months rather than axe him immediately in a face saving move.
"We will sit with the coach when he returns from Tajikistan with the team. We would want to know from him what went wrong as Bangladesh lost 5-0 to the Central Asians," said BFF acting secretary Manzoor Hossain Malu yesterday.
Malu hinted a few days earlier that chopping Nayeemuddin was only a matter of time as the BFF found his activities unsatisfactory. "We have been waiting for the result of the Bangladesh-Tajikistan match before taking a decision on Nayeem. We can't afford to run camp or keep the coach with no international meet in near future," Malu had said.
"It's true don't have the fund to continue camp but we also have to think that whether we would be able to afford another foreign coach, who would be far expensive," the BFF secretary said last night.
With domestic football starting soon, Bangladesh's next international commitments would be in the second AFC Challenge Cup in March 2008 and the SAFF Championship in June same year.
There will be no need of running camp but keeping the coach would be an advantage, only if the BFF can afford his salary of Tk one lakh.
"If we release him now, we will have to start the process of recruiting another coach which might hamper preparation for the SAFF Championship.
"So it would be wise to ask him about a direction for our future course. We will take our decision in our next meeting," added Malu.
However, one thing the BFF must sort out is how to build good relations with the Indian and the senior players as veterans Nazrul, Matiur Munna and Titu have already deserted camp under Nayeem.
When Nayeemuddin led India to regain the SAFF Championship in 2005 in Pakistan, former India legend PK Bannerjee was sent as manager-cum-troubleshooter.
The Indian players also did not want to join the camps when he was coach as Nayeem used to train them like military, leading the booters to show excuses to run away from camp.
The Bangladesh team, which lost 6-1 on aggregate to Tajikistan to bow out of the 2010 World Cup pre-qualifiers, will return home today.