Anisur Rahman

A face-off between two Dhaka-based football academies may have promised the prospect of an eye-pleasing game, but yesterday’s opening fixture BFF (U-15) Academy Championship scarcely lived up to expectations at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium.

AKM Maruful Haque has been involved in coaching since the second edition of the professional football league in the 2008-9 season, but the country's lone UEFA A licence coach, along with other successful coaches such as Shafiqul Islam Manik, Saiful Bari Titu, and Julfikar Mahmud Mintu, have not been involved with top-fight football for the first time in the professional era due to the influx of foreign coaches. The 54-year-old successful coach, who has 11 titles and six runners-up trophies to his name, spoke to Anisur Rahman of The Daily Star about various aspects of the country's coaches and coaching. The excerpts of the conversation are as follows:

Foreign coach hiring is common in global sports such as football, particularly among national teams. Bangladesh is no different in this regard, although this practice has extended in full force in the country’s top-flight domestic circuit of late -- leading to the marginalisation of similarly qualified local coaches.

Dad, do you know how to build a rocket? Seems, you do not. You know nothing. You are good for nothing.

Ramhim Lian Bawm fell in love with table tennis in his childhood, after watching a game on television. That love dragged him towards the game some eight years back, eventually seeing him becoming the first indigenous player to lift the crown in men’s singles event of the National Table Tennis Championships on Saturday.

Jamal Bhuiyan said that it would have been best for Emiliano Martinez to have made a public appearance during his short visit to Bangladesh when the Bangladesh football team captain talked over the phone with Satadru Dutta, the chief of the company that brought the Argentine to the subcontinent for the first time.

While returning to the dressing room on the back of a foreign coaching staff, defender Tariq Raihan Kazi, wearing a bandage on his left leg and a big smile on his face,

After suffering a 2-0 defeat to Lebanon, Bangladesh are in a vulnerable position once again in the SAFF Championship, aware that any result other than a victory against Maldives at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru today would leave them on the verge of exiting the competition in the group stage for the sixth straight time.

It was another heartbreak for Bangladesh as they conceded two late goals and began their SAFF Championship campaign with a 2-0 loss to Lebanon in the Group B opener at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium yesterday.

When this reporter knocked on the door of Md. Mohsin’s residence, it took more time than usual for someone to answer it.

It is often said that the spectators have turned their backs on domestic football, especially since the Bangladesh Premier League matches and other tournaments have been held in front of almost empty stadiums year after year. However, Tuesday's pulsating Federation Cup final in Cumilla between the country's two popular outfits -- Mohammedan SC and Abahani -- has proved the notion wrong.

Football has been at the centre of every discussion in the sports fraternity in the country for the past month, but unfortunately the conversation has revolved around administrative shortcomings such as the Bangladesh Football Federation’s (BFF’s)

Kabaddi had been a lone discipline that once popped at least a medal in the Asian Games for Bangladesh but the present scenario has deviated afar.

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) once struggled to roll tournaments on the ground due to financial constraints as the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) together had provided the board an inadequate USD 500,000 per year.

Of late, two major reasons pushed football to suddenly become a focal point of discussion among sports lovers in Bangladesh: the national women's football team's withdrawal from the Paris Olympic women's football qualifiers after the men's team's subpar display against lowly Seychelles in two FIFA friendly matches last month.

The Bangladesh women’s football team have been injecting fresh air for years amidst all the doldrums.

The way fitness coach Ivan Razlog and physio Kandasmy Senthil Kumar Yoseshwar kept an eye on journalists, especially cameramen and photographers to ensure no footage of the training session was being captured, it seemed as if Bangladesh were set to play a crucial international match at the Sylhet District Stadium today.

Karateka Marzan Akter Priya hurdled obstacles from within her family to take up sports as a profession. She won gold in karate in the 2019 South Asian Games. In an interview marking International Women’s Day on Wednesday, the fine arts student of Jagannath University talked to The Daily Star’s Anisur Rahman as she spoke about the special occasion and the scope and advancement of women in sports in general in the country.

Although Mojibur Rahman Jony got into Bangladesh’s 27-member preliminary squad on the back of only 10 Bangladesh Premier League matches worth of experience, the 19-year-old attacking midfielder had to face serious hurdles on his journey so far; including a death-scare.

Despite having been the third-choice player at his position, injuries to two of his teammates in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League not only paved the way for Abahani left-back Alomgir Mollah in cementing his place in the starting eleven but the 22-year-old went on to earn a call-up to the national team’s 27-member preliminary squad for the upcoming 2023 Tri Nations Cup at home.