The introduction of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) clubs has long been anticipated to make the country’s Women’s Football League (WFL) competitive.
The players’ self-claimed salary, on the other hand, prompted the league’s lone BPL team, Bashundhara Kings, to withdraw from seeking for club license for the league’s upcoming fourth season.
The absence of the Kings from the WFL means that the top-tier women’s league is expected to be much weaker, with many elite players expected to stay inactive after the lack of a women’s league this year.
A maximum of 10 teams who filed club license paperwork by the December 14 deadline are expected to build their own squads with their own resources. However, it is unknown how many teams will be granted the license.
The First Instant Body (FIB), an AFC-approved body made up of members from outside the Bangladesh Football Federation, is expected to give down club license by January 10 before the league starts in early February.
Although Kings officials have remained silent about their involvement in the upcoming league, it has been learned that top female footballers demanded three to four times the remuneration they received from Kings in the previous edition of the league, which was held in a single-leg format rather than the promised double-leg system.
“The players demanded unusual remuneration from us,” revealed an unnamed Kings executive.
“A player who received Tk 4 lakh demanded Tk 15 lakh, while another who received Tk 5 lakh demanded Tk 20 lakh for the one-and-a-half month league, valuing themselves higher than male footballers who sign 10-month contracts for domestic and international competitions.” As a result, we did not seek for club license,” he continued.
Following their victory in the SAFF Women’s Championship, prominent female footballers boycotted national team training for a few days in order to demand a bigger income, more international matches, and local league regulation, and the BFF ultimately complied to some degree.
Women’s football may have gotten a lot of attention from fans, but not from clubs, which generally supply fuel for players. As a result, it seems that those players fell into their own trap without first scrutinizing the facts.
It was also discovered that the Bangladesh Football Federation’s (BFF) preferential treatment of another woman’s outfit, led by a BFF vice president, played a part in Kings’ absence.