Football goes primary

August 17, 2010

Football in the country is finally set to go grassroots with the introduction of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup Inter-Primary School Tournament that is expected to kick off in October this year.

The government has decided to launch this first-of-its-kind soccer tournament involving about 60,000 primary schools across the country in memory of the founder of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already approved the tournament and we are taking necessary measures,” said Abu Alam Mohammad Shahid Khan, secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, yesterday.

Football in the country has been on the wane over the last two decades and the governing body of country’s football, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF), is struggling to even organise regular leagues, let alone staging any age group events.

Besides, no national level tournament for the children of primary level has been initiated before.

The ministry official said that this tournament would be a shot in the arm to revive the image of our football.

“The tournament will help flourish physical, mental and aesthetic growth of the children as well as build a tolerable and competitive mind. It will also help grow interest about the sport among the children and could be an ideal platform to create future national sports stars,” hoped Shahid Khan.

BFF president Kazi Salahuddin termed the government initiative as a ‘fantastic’ move.

“It was actually our proposal and I’m very happy that the government has approved it. It will create a tremendous impact in our football because hundreds of thousands youth will be kicking the ball,” said Salahuddin adding that it would the biggest asset from where they could scout future national players.

Meanwhile, while elaborating the format of the tournament the ministry official said that a policy has already been framed.

The tournament will be held in five levels — union or pourashava, upazila or thana under city corporation, district, divisional and national.

According to the policy framed students from government primary schools; registered non-government primary schools; community primary schools and PTI experimental schools will participate in the tournament.

Each school will be allowed to send one team which will consist of 17 players and two officials — one manager and one trainer — nominated by the school managing committee. But, as usual the team will comprise of 11 players.

The age limit for the players would be 12 years and the height would be not more than 5 feet.

Each game will be played for 50 minutes and there will be a 10-minute break for halftime.

The competition will start with the union or pourashava level schools and the champions from this level will play in the upazila or city corporation level. The champions from upazila level will qualify for the district level competition and the winners from the district level will advance to the divisional level. The champions from the divisional level will then take part in the national level.

The tournament will be held in a knockout system as framed in the policy. There will be no entry or registration fees for participating in the tournament.

The union, upazila, district and divisional level games are expected to be completed within October, said officials, adding that the national level competition is expected to be held in December.

The champions and runners-up of national level will be given replica gold and silver cups respectively along with prize money.

The ministry has also a plan to hold an inter-primary school handball tournament for female students from next year, the secretary said.

Football goes primary

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