The 2023 witnessed an eventful year for the both mens and womens football on and off the field as the mens team received appreciation for their impressive performance while the womens team crossed mixed bag throughout the year.
This year has been quite eventful for Jamal Bhuyan and Co. as after fourteen years, Bangladesh qualified in the semi-finals of the SAFF Championship win the home and abroad under their Spanish head coach Javier Cabrera.
Bangladesh has shown a very good example of football. In addition to SAFF, the boys in red and green stopped upper ranked Lebanon in their own soil in the World Cup qualifiers. Being satisfied with Cabreras performance, BFF extended his tenure by one more year.
Apart from teams success, there were some individual achievements in football. Bangladeshs captain Jamal Bhuyan is the first Bangladeshi participated in the Argentinean League. New sensation Morsalin, a young footballer, who made his debut this year, has shown remarkable skill on the field wearing the national team jersey. Since then the football pundits are considering him as a new ray of hope in the countrys football.
The womens football has also gone through an eventful year.
The eve footballers won the SAFF U-20 Womens Championship with an emphatic 3-0 win over Nepal in February before finishing runners-up behind strong Russia in the SAFF U-17 Womens Championship in March.
But, things were not gone through smoothly with the womens team. In March, the national players boycotted practice to make their demand felt over various issues including awards, regular salary arrears.
In March, the BFF decided to withdraw the womens team from the AFC Womens Olympic Qualifiers, just six days before the event began, citing financial constraints.
The announcement of the inaugural franchise-based Womens Super League (WSL) brought some relief to eve booters, however, the WSL is yet to see the light of day eight months into the announcement.
Sabinas long-serving coach Golam Robbani Chotan also resigned from the post of coach.
Experienced coach Saiful Bari Titu, the former coach of the national team, was given the charge of the womens football team.
Under Titus coaching, the womens football team participated in the 19th Asian Games for the first time and gathered experience in the group of world champion Japan.
Bangladesh womens football team suffered heavily against former World Cup champions Japan and World Cup-playing nation Vietnam but drew against Nepal in the Asian Games.
Sabina and Co. however finished this year on a high, defeating Singapore 3-0 and 8-0 in two international friendly encounters earlier this month in their home soil.
The 2023 is also a year of history for powerhouse Bashundhara Kings in domestic football. No one has achieved four consecutive league titles since independence.
Bashundhara Kings, who came to the Bangladesh Premier League in 2018, achieved this feat in a short period of time.
In addition to the BPL title in the middle of the year, the Kings also retained the Independence Cup title in the new season.
Bashundhara Kings crossed the boundaries and were in the race to become the best in South Asia as well.
If they could draw against Indian Club Odisha in India, they would play in the next stage as the group best in South Asia in the AFC Cup. In that match, a controversial decision by the referee ruined all hope of Kings.
The 2023 is also the year of the return of traditional outfit Mohammedan Sporting Club in domestic football. Mohammedan finally broke the jinx by winning the Federation Cup title after prolong fourteen years.
The black and white jersey holders also reached the final of the Independence Cup, the first tournament of the new season this month, but they could not win the title despite finding ten men kings.
Meanwhile, FIFA banned on Abu Nayeem Shohag, the former general secretary of BFF in mid April, was the most talked issue in countrys football. —BSS
