Football in Bangladesh - History

History

History tells us why football is still popular in the country. During the liberation war in 1971, football was the way to create international awareness of the war of independence: the establishment of the Swadhin Bangla Football Team which played 16 matches in India and was officially received by the BFF in 2009.

The time before the 1990s saw national soccer fever in league football, specifically in the Dhaka League, which possessed club teams famous home and abroad. League football was popular even before independence, from the 1940s to 1960s under Pakistan. There were quite a number of premier football clubs in Dhaka, in the 1940s, most prominent among them were Dhaka Wanderers, Victoria SC, Wari Club, Mohammedan SC, EP Gymkhana, Railways, and Fire service. A match between East Pakistan Governors XI vs. West Bengal XI was held at Dhaka in the late forties. The first Dhaka League was won by Bangladeshi Victoria SC in 1948, three years prior to the Mother Language Movement when still under Pakistani rule. Football was played both in the domestic leagues and abroad. Bangladeshi clubs such as BKSP and Bangladesh Red played with success in international football tournaments like Aga Khan Gold Cup, President Gold Cup, Dana Cup and Gothia Cup. BKSP won the later two in 1990 while Bangladesh Red were runners-up in the first President Gold Cup in 1981 and won it in 1989. Except that, Bangladeshi clubs bagged three more titles abroad: Quaid-E-Azam Trophy of Pakistan in 1985, Four-nation invitational tournament of Myanmar in 1995 and Jigme Dorji Wangchuk Memorial Football of Bhutan in 2003.

Bangladesh’s best player of all time is Kazi Salahuddin, who played professional football in Hong Kong in 1979, and is now president of the BFF.

After BFF’s establishment in 1972, the national team played their first international against Thailand in the 1973 Merdeka tournament in Malaysia. After its membership with FIFA in 1974 and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the national team participated in the 1980 AFC Asian Cup and the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. But the nation’s best results came at South Asian level where it won the SAFF Championship once and were gold medalists in South Asian Games twice.

The last ten years saw a series of changes in national head coaches and many famous coaches like the Austrian György Kottán and German Otto Pfister, who coached Côte d'Ivoire to their first FIFA World Cup finals in 2006. However in 2006, Bangladesh reached the quarterfinals of the AFC Challenge Cup under Argentine coach Andres Cruciani and in 2010, Bangladesh won the 11th South Asian Games on home soil under the Serbian Zoran Djordjevic, who left in February the same year.

On 6 September 2011 was the most unforgettable moment of Bangladeshi football.Living football god Messi and his national team Argentina, played a friendly match against Nigeria national team at Bangabandhu Stadium.Where Messi and his team mates impressed Bangladeshi football lovers with their sensational playing. Bangladeshi footballers were privileged to see the match and practice with the football gladiators. Bangladeshi footballers were encouraged and motivated by Argentine footballers. They believe Bangladesh football could go far away if world class facilities are brought in footballing system.

On April 4th Bangladeshi football legend Kazi Salauddin re-elected as president of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF).He has been enlightening Bangladesh football since he took the charge of the BFF board. He took the first initiative of Bangladesh Super League known as "Koti Takar League". His all initiation keep attracting international players as well as highly rated international coaches.He promised, he'll take Bangladesh Football long way.