'No alternative to focusing on grassroots'

Agreeing to most of the points Australian coach Andrew Ord raised following the national U-23 team's disappointing campaign in the AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers, country's two top football coaches -- Maruful Haque and Saiful Bari Titu – said there is no short-cut to improving football without youth development.

“Bangladesh is not anywhere near competitive at the international level,” this statement made by Ord is good enough to highlight the current status of football in Bangladesh, who are 190th in FIFA rankings at the moment. Having raised questions about footballers' poor technique, lack of fitness and professionalism, Ord urged the local game's governing body to focus on youth development immediately.

“I also pointed out these things one and a half years ago after the SAFF Championship in Kerala. To be honest, worse is yet to come because there will hardly be any skillful player left after the departure of players like Mamunul Islam and Zahid Hossain. The ones knocking at the door of the national team have poor technique and skill compared to the current ones,” opined former national coach Maruful.

“What he (Ord) meant about youth development is to start programmes at the grassroots level, not the ones featuring 15- or 16-year-old boys. Youth development in Europe and America means grassroots programme,” said another former national coach Saiful Bari Titu.

“No wonder our players have poor technical and tactical skills at the moment. Techniques such as passing, shooting, controlling, crossing, heading, turning with the ball and tactics such as taking position and closing down opposition players, making quick decisions on the pitch are skills that can be developed from the grassroots level.  You can't embed these skills in players at 15 or 16 years of age,” the AFC A licensed coach explained.

Titu believes if football craze returns, there will be no need to take special initiatives for youth development because players would come out automatically.

“As there is no football craze in the country at the moment, there is no alternative to focusing on football academies, and in that case, BKSPs can be the centre of youth development. Football Federation can come forward in collaboration with the government and its ministries to provide quality coaches,” Titu said, adding that some of the top clubs, who have proper structure and financial solvency, can take long-term plans to build youth squads.

Maruf, who is an UEFA A licensed coach, however thinks differently as he feels the federation must set example for clubs to follow.

“The BFF should take some pilot projects at districts which are providing most footballers at the moment. This should set an example for others to follow as no clubs or individuals are coming out to take the responsibility,” said Maruful, who however wants most emphasis on coaches' education.

“I know some eight to 10 footballers in the professional league who don't know how to cross the ball and how to cut the ball back even though all of them spent eight years at football academies. So you have to provide proper coaching at grassroots level to groom them up. Honestly we don't have such coaches,” said Muruf.

However both Maruf and Titu disagreed with Ord's suggestion that physical fitness can be improved through training, rather they believe that the players should keep themselves fit round the year.