Best in dorms, the rest in luxury
Bangladesh's success in the AFC U-16 Women's Championship Qualifiers can simply be termed fabulous but the hard work the girls put in over two-and-a-half months to reach their current level cannot be similarly condensed into a single word.
Most of the girls who assembled in the training camp of the U-16 women's team have come from underprivileged backgrounds in remote villages. They left behind the humble warmth of their families to stay at the dormitory of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) for nearly two-and-a-half months since the start of the preparation camp in July.
And that is where they continue to reside, without any complaints, even as the other teams enjoy the modern facilities at Purbani Hotel, the designated venue to accommodate 155 players and officials of five teams.
Each girl consumes food worth only Tk 500 per day to replenish the energy lost on the pitch while training hard and giving their all in matches. That has been the major expenditure of the game's governing body behind the brilliant girls, who do not even get a daily allowance or monthly salary to undergo the training camp or serve in the national team.
During the training camp, each girl could only be given a dress and Tk 500 by the game's cash-starved governing body to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr at the dormitory, while each player is supposed to get only Tk 5,000 cash award ahead of Eid-ul-Azha as well as the required expenditure to travel back home.
The BFF has alway struggled to maintain domestic commitments, run the training camps of the age-group (if there is any international tournament) teams as well as the national men's team but they have surprisingly chosen to keep the girls of the U-16 women's team at the dormitory instead of at the Purbani Hotel, apparently in a quest to recover some of their deficit in hosting the AFC U-16 Women's Championship.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) provided the BFF 2.2 lakh [Tk 1.7 crore] US dollars to host the six-team Group C Qualifiers but the BFF needs another Tk 50 lakh to complete the 13-day competition in Dhaka. This budget does not include expenditure for the Bangladesh team.
“It is true that some money [about Tk 22 lakh] would be saved because of accommodating our girls at the dormitory but we could have accommodated them at the hotel along with other teams.
“The fact is that we are taking care of those girls more at the dormitory, providing more food than the hotel and maintaining their discipline. We think it is better for us to take care of the girls at the dormitory and it is happening here. The expenditure is not the main issue, we think we keep our girls in our way,” said BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag.
Shohag informed that they are spending Tk 15,000-20,000 per day behind the Bangladesh U-16 team and team management for food while they are paying Tk 2 lakh for the accommodation and food for a 31-member foreign squad per day.