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Idle coaches, wasted talent

Anisur Rahman
Football is a team game which needs an experienced man-manager at the helm. A good coach must not only have knowledge on the game itself, but also be well-versed in sports medicine, planning, preparation, evaluation, fitness, proper food, emergency aid, health and safety, injuries, laws of the game and attitudes and ethics. So the importance of educating coaches can never be underestimated.
Bangladesh have produced quite a number of qualified and licensed coaches in the past decade and a half --107 to be precise -- who have been licensed by the Asian Football Confederation -- 18 of them A-licensed, 29 B-licensed and 60 C-licensed. However, this number is a paltry one considering that more than 14,000 (approx) footballers need to be groomed both in the capital and outside.
Football's governing body held the first coaching course for AFC C license in 1996 and since then only three more such AFC C license courses were held in 1999, 2006 and 2007, the last one being organised by AFC during the AFC IJ -14 Football Festival in BKSP.
After completion of these courses, the first coaching course on AFC B license was held in 2007 where 10 out of 24 participants came out successfully but the coaches' education has never gathered proper pace even under the dynamic leadership of Kazi Salahuddin.
Salahuddin's first four-year stint as BFF President saw only two coaching courses held; the first one was on AFC B license in 2010 with 16 more coaches out of 23 participants emerging and the second one was on AFC A license in the same year where 16 participants out of 21 earned certificates.
But the basic training (AFC C license), in a bid to increase the number of qualified coaches, remained ignored over the last four years though some 87 applicants including former national hooters Wasim Iqbal, Jewel Rana, Abu Faisal, Atiqur Rahman, Mintu, Don, Nizam, Mostakim, Shimul, Sarnrat, Nira, Ekram Rana and Shamim had applied for the AFC C license course two years ago.
Some applicants alleged that a vested group within the football federation do not want former national hooters to come into the coaching profession, which is why they did not take any steps to hold the AFC C license courses.
Abu Nayeem Shohag, acting general
secretary, dispelled the suggestion saying that they could not hold the coaches’ coaching course due to a financial crisis but they are going to hold two AFC C license courses in September and December. He also informed that the football's governing body was thinking of introducing its own license course in the near future.
The sadder part of the scenario is that most of the 107 coaches that Bangladesh have are based in Dhaka, and there are not many qualified coaches to groom the players who come from outside. 17 of those qualified coaches are appointed by BFF, a few others are appointed by the Premier league and Championship League clubs, while the rest remain unemployed. Even those appointed by the BFF remain idle most of the time due to lack of engagement.
What it results in is that the vast number of players who ply their trade outside Dhaka are not groomed under a well-trained coach, and as a result lack the basic technique in shooting, dribbling, passing and positional knowledge. They remain heavily under-prepared for the challenge of the premier league or the national teams, which is a regular objection of the foreign coaches who take charge of the national teams.