‘Our football is orphaned’
One of the country’s most famous footballers has been at the helm of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) for the past for 12 years. BFF President Kazi Salahuddin is now set to contest another term at the helm in the upcoming elections of on September 3. Achievements have been few and far between, with the 2010 SA Games gold a highlight. But a string of losses, including a first-ever to Bhutan, is seen as a certain sign of the sport’s regression in the nation. The Daily Star’s Anisur Rahman spoke to different stakeholders of the beautiful game, asking them their thoughts on the future of football and how the outcomes of the elections could take the sport forward. For the second part, we speak to renowned organiser Manzoor Hossain Malu, who had been directly involved in football for 35 years from 1977 to 2012 as an organiser and was behind the emergence of numerous notable players. He has kept himself away since due to dirty politics, but still keeps tabs on the sport.
"Football is now a platform for fake organisers to draw cheap publicity," Manzoor Hossain Malu lamented. "There was no grouping or politics before. Everyone worked together regardless of their political identity. After 1990, sports leadership has always had a political colour. It was not only at the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) but at the club level too. Real organisers were forced out of clubs that they had once spent out of their pockets to run due to pressure from political organisers.
"They occupied the clubs to do business using their political identity and made the clubs income sources by allowing gambling and extortion, and used the clubs as a platform to climb up the ladder in the political arena," added the 71-year-old, who was a victim of politics and had to leave Fakirerpool Youngmen's Club in 2010 before later being defeated in the 2012 BFF polls.
"Our football is orphaned. And people are simply using it. Football's condition is dire. If you want to make a building, you need a blueprint and the involvement of many others such as architects, civil engineers, masons, carpenters. In the same way, you need a solid plan and a lot of people to develop football. But I see nothing. It is not possible to develop football with only former footballers. If you look at the BFF executive committee, 90 per cent are former footballers but they are not organisers."
However, he also blames himself and other organisers for the current vacuum of 'real organisers' in the football fraternity.
"A lack of real organisers at clubs and the BFF is one of the major reasons for football going downhill. Blame must also go to organisers, who brought former footballers into the BFF. Who brought Kazi Salahuddin, Badal Roy and Sheikh Mohammad Aslam into the organising arena? Of course, organisers brought them into this arena. Now, you even can't find a real organiser at upazila level," added Malu, had himself nominated Kazi Salahuddin as Fakirerpool Youngmans councillor to contest in the 2008 BFF polls after Salahuddin had resigned from then SA Sultan-led BFF committee.
The former organiser also worked under Salahuddin from 2008 to 2012 as vice-president of the BFF and he believes Salahuddin did not put much thought into his work at the time.
"Salahuddin never did his homework when trying to develop football. He started implementing things without much thought. It was a bad virtue. Salahuddin was a good footballer with great technical and tactical sense, but he is not a good organiser. He was initially not a bad guy, but he was made into one by many BFF members, who played dual roles and misguided him," evaluated Malu, who believes Salahuddin has failed to bring any change to the football in 12 years.
"What change did Salahuddin bring? He brought no change in football. He damaged it. He established fake organisers at BFF. If I know someone is a thief, then why would I give him space instead of stopping him. It is not possible for Salahuddin to bring more change to football. He can't save football from the dire situation he took it to. He should leave with his honour and dignity intact," Malu added, refusing to rate the BFF executive committee "higher than minus" on a scale of 1-10.
He also added there were a few BFF executive member-cum-former-footballers who refused to fasten the laces of their boots before matches until their payments were cleared and that is the kind of mentality with which they serve football.
"It is not possible to bring professionalism just by introducing a professional football league. We needed to bring professionalism into clubs step-by-step. The professional football league is still immature and no one knows how many years we need to correct it. Professionalism must come through the grassroots level, where young players, their parents and their clubs are prepared for it," said Malu.
Urging all to stop the flow of black money in the BFF polls to pave the way for real organisers, the veteran said: "I believe former footballers do not need a role in BFF activities. I would instead request well-off former footballers to make a limited company and invest in football academies, from which they and the country's football can be benefited. I think former footballers will be honoured in this way, but they don't need to come to the BFF."