A countrywide talent hunt programme for the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) Academy in Sylhet is gaining pace as coaches have been scouting for talented young players for the U-14 and U-18 age groups for the last nine days.

The programme is in its initial phase where 20 BFF-appointed and 40 recruited coaches are working phase by phase with around five lakh budding footballers in around 500 upazilas of the country for selecting five players from each administrative unit for the U-14 and U-18 levels, making the number of selected at around 5,000.

The detailed plans for the programme were laid out at a press conference of the Development Committee of the federation at the BFF House yesterday with committee chairman Badal Roy in chair.

"The programme will be carried out in all 64 districts except Gazipur, Chuadanga and Gaibandha who do not have a District Football Association. We expect that no aspiring footballer will be out of the

programme apart from the three districts," said Badal Roy.

These selected players from the upazila level will be sent to the district level from September 16 where they will undergo another trial to reduce the number further for the divisional level. The divisional level will feature 120 players, 10 from each division and age group, and their trial will be held in Dhaka at the presence of FIFA-appointed coaches who will select 60 players for the academy.

The academy will groom these budding footballers, under guidance of FIFA-appointed coaches and a technical director, and prepare these players for the future. The academy is expected to work as a pipeline for the national team in future.

Roy expected that they could start the grooming after Eid-ul-Azha and by that time the logistics at the academy will be in place. At the moment, the academy has the basic infrastructure with dormitories, gym, swimming pool and play grounds, but equipment and logistics are not in place.

The talent hunt programme has an estimated budget of 50 lakh taka, all of which is being borne by the sponsorship money from Dhaka Bank Limited.