BFF Football Academy opens in Sylhet
Shahad Raju from Sylhel
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As the sun tilted in the west and colourful balloons flew high from the BKSP ground in Sylhet, the enthusiastic crowd witnessed the gala opening of the first-ever Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) Academy by Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith there on Thursday.
In his speech Abul Mal Abdul Muhith said, "I am very happy to see that at last Bangladesh Football Federation got an academy for football to create world class players. I hope in near future our players will be ready to play against any international team. One thing I must say, this academy is not only for Sylhet district but also for all the players of the country."
He was present as the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony along with Bangladesh Football Federation President Kazi Salahuddin, Minister for Commerce, Tofail Ahmed, State Minister for Youth and Sports, Shri Biren Sikder and State Minister for Finance M A Mannan.
Kazi Salahuddin talked about the financial side of Bangladesh Football. He said, "We have a vision for this academy. Football is played in 209 countries across the world. It is not like other sports which are played by few countries. For that reason the completion was too tough for us. We built this academy for our players and our first target is to bring players of various ages together. They are so talented. If we can develop them effectively so that they can serve the nation in future."
"Also we have to keep us them on the right track. That's why we built this academy. But our vision is more than that. Government supports us but it's a big question why we cannot achieve our goal. The infrastructure is okay. But only70 per cent of our work is done We need to do more. For financial constraints we could not complete the project perfectly. The second part is to run this academy and for that we need four crore taka every year. The last thing is, if we play an international match or any exhibition match against international team then it cost almost 70-lakh taka. So we need more financial help from the government," Salahuddin added.
He further said, "Other countries have big budget to run football federation. Japan has 200 million dollar budget for every year. But I am not looking for big budget. I am looking for reasonable budget for the federation to run it smoothly. One portion of that budget would make me look after young generation who will be total footballers and shun drugs, alcohol use and dirty politics. Nation gets healthy."
Salahuddin said, "It was a dream for long to have a football academy and at last we have this after 43 years of liberation. We want our players to bring pride to the nation."
The Sylhet BKSP, one of its four centres of sporting excellence around the country, is built on over 13 acres of land at Khadimnagar on the outskirts of Sylhet city. The BFF will pay a monthly rent of Tk 50,000 to BKSP authorities for the academy that has a classroom for 50 students, one conference room with the accommodation capacity of 100 people, two office rooms, two rooms for coaches, 19 rooms for hostel in which 38 students can stay along with dining, one football ground, two quarters for officers and two quarters for the staff members.
