For whom the whistle doesn't blow

For a nation that claims to love football, we have a curious way of showing it.

The Pioneer Football League (PFL), long seen as the launchpad for Bangladesh's most promising talents, hasn't been held in over three years. Since Barishal Football Academy lifted the trophy in the 2021–22 edition, thousands of aspiring professionals -- mostly teenagers and under the age of 15 -- have been caught in limbo.

The PFL was once the cradle of Bangladesh's footballing future, producing stars like Monem Munna, Rummon Bin Wali Sabbir, Jewel Rana, and Alfaz Ahmed -- and more recently, national players like Mohammad Abdullah and Jafar Iqbal. Although it ran regularly from 2012 to 2016 during former Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin's second term at the helm, the most extensive grassroots competition in the country has since faded into neglect, held just three times in the past eight years.

With such initial conditions in place, generation after generation are being set up to end with unfulfilled potential.

Yesterday, many officials from PFL outfits gathered outside the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) headquarters. Some carried placards. Others brought children who should have been out on a field, not protesting on a pavement.

Photo: Firoz Ahmed

"Let's start the Pioneer League or step down," one sign read. Another asked a simple question: "Why is it stopped?"

It's a fair question. If football is to be taken forward, why does the federation stay fixated on national teams and Dhaka's top-tier leagues, while grassroots football withers? How can development thrive when a tournament of such scale and legacy lies dormant?

The BFF appointed executive member Tipu Sultan as chairman of the Pioneer League committee in November last year, but the rest of the committee is yet to be finalised.

"We plan to resume the Pioneer Football League tentatively from mid-October," Sultan told The Daily Star from Kathmandu yesterday, adding that he will meet board president Tabith Awal to expedite the process once he returns.

But the clock, typically unforgiving in nature, is ticking.

In a footballing culture where women players have had to fight for basic necessities like nutritious food or address unpaid salaries -- even after landmark victories -- or when women's team head coach describes the living standard in the BFF Elite Academy in "bad shape", something just doesn't add up.

If the roots are diseased, how can the tree bear fruit?

Even with financial constraints or logistical hurdles, youth development cannot be sacrificed.

As Mohanagar Krira Chakra's Alamgir Hossain warned yesterday, "If the league is held irregularly, then you won't find any footballers in the coming days."

Shahadat Hossain of Laizu Football Academy cautioned as well, that time is slipping away, noting, "If they can't start the league in October, it will be deferred by another six months due to the preparation for the national elections and Ramadan."

Bangladesh can no longer afford to let this sleeping giant lie. The youth are waiting, and they don't tend to have the patience to wait for long.