By Rubel Jubaer
FOOTBALL ACADEMIES ARE THE BREEDING GROUND FOR FUTURE GENERATION PLAYERS BUT BANGLADESH DOES NOT HAVE MANY OF THEM
Bangladesh football has everything but the business. It has exceptional tradition, tales of the golden era but the Midas touch is missing. Football is dying and one of the main reasons is the lack of a pipeline of new and emerging players. Throughout the globe, it is maintained through academies as they not only supply quality players on a constant basis but also generate revenues by doing so.
One of the most experienced coaches in the land, Maruful Haque thinks there is lack of Long Term Player Development (LTPD). He believes the lack of insight into the business of football is the main reason for this shortcoming.
Let us discuss the big global clubs first to understand the mechanism. According to a list of Business Insider, Manchester United was the top earning club with a revenue of 515.3 million euros. However, the club failed to win the domestic league since 2012-13. Its European record is even more dismal, as the English club last won the Champions League Trophy, the title of Europe’s best club, back in 2007-08. Despite the lack of success, the club could grow their income by selling match tickets, jerseys, TV rights, so on and so forth. The saga is same almost for most successful global clubs and even for the clubs which are most supported in each of the countries.
But two of the most beloved clubs in this country – Abahani Limited and Mohammedan Sporting Club failed to follow this blueprint. They have a humongous following and have been the most successful clubs in the country. Since the 90s, the galleries had started to become empty. Nevertheless, it was not only the diminishing quality of their players, there was also a lack of professionalism and insight.
Incredibly, Mohammedan does not have its own stadium. Another big club Brothers’ Union has a field to practice but that is not a stadium, let alone a modern one by any means. Chittagong Abahani has a similar story. To make things worse, often these fields are being used as cow markets before Eid.
If we turn back to global clubs, the English club, Arsenal last won the domestic league back in 2003-04, and their best European success was reaching the final of the Champions League back in 2006. However, the club under their French manager Arsene Wenger has surged its account.
One of the key ingredients of this financial success is their academy. The academy trains budding footballers from a tender age and they are sold to other clubs for a hefty sum when they are matured. The story is even more lucrative for La Masia, the legendary Academy of Barcelona Football club, another giant global side.
Arguably the world’s best footballer Lionel Messi was brought up in La Masia, which also nurtured talents like Xavi, Andres Iniesta, members of World Cup-winning Spanish side and Pep Guardiola, the master tactician also learned his trade there.
La Masia was the brainchild of Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, who wanted to build an academy like Ajax Academy, and it became the hotbed of world’s best footballers.
These days, almost all European clubs maintain an academy because it is pivotal for ensuring both quality and income for the club. But none of the Bangladeshi clubs could establish an academy to date. Moreover, they lack an age-level team.
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) tried to set up an academy but it was nipped in the bud. BFF took Sylhet BKSP as lease to run an academy. With the aid of FIFA, BFF president Kazi Muhammad Salahuddin announced the opening of the academy through an extravagant program back in 2014. But it was stopped in the very next year for lack of funding.
There were some personal initiatives as well. Bangladesh national team’s former coach Maruful Haque wanted to move forward with his Creative Football School. He attempted to teach young footballers of the academy psychological skills, social skills, mental strength and morality like the European academies. Nonetheless, that initiative was also stopped due to the lack of quality and modern coaches. Maruf however, does not want to blame only the patronizers but he reckons lack of quality in youth coaches is the main reason for stopping his academy.
Maruf believes that the lack of ‘club culture’ is the primary reason behind the fall of Bangladesh football. He thinks there is no alternative to working with the youth and the grass-roots stage to improve the country’s game. He commented on the condition of the sport in Bangladesh, “Look, there is this program called LTPD, which is a known term throughout the world. Foreign clubs have a marketing section, business section, and other sections to attract revenue. But we have none, We have none to understand the potential business of football and thrive on.”
