Bangladesh’s SAFF Women’s Championship-winning squad will finally collect their Tk 1.5 crore prize money before April 14, after BFF president Tabith Awal stepped in front of the cameras on Thursday and publicly nailed his colours to the mast, ending a 16-month saga of delay just days before the Bangla New Year, while also revealing plans to appoint scouts across multiple countries to hunt down diaspora talent for the national setup.
Awal went on national television and left himself nowhere to hide. He said, “Players and staffs will get the money before the new Bangla year begins,” and in doing so, he turned a vague institutional promise into a personal one. That deadline, April 14, now carries his name on it.
The original pledge dates back to November 9, 2024. The newly elected BFF committee, in its very first meeting after the title win, approved the Tk 1.5 crore reward and made clear it would cover the entire squad and staff, not just those who started the final. That was the right call. Winning a championship is never an eleven-man job.
In the months that followed, other money did arrive. The Ministry of Youth and Sports sent Tk 1 crore, and the Bangladesh Cricket Board added Tk 20 lakh to the pot. Decent gestures, both of them, but neither one was the federation’s own commitment, and the players knew the difference.
To be fair to Awal, he inherited this situation. The new BFF committee approved the reward in its opening meeting, which shows willing. But somewhere between that approval and this week’s television appearance, the money simply sat there, unpaid. That requires an explanation nobody has fully offered.
Away from the women’s prize money story, Awal used the same television appearance to shine a light on another shift gathering pace inside Bangladesh football. Players like Hamza Choudhury, Shamit Shome, Fahamedul Islam, Zayyan Ahmed, Ronan Sullivan, Declan Sullivan, and Ibrahim Nawaz have added serious quality and profile to the national and age level setup, and the diaspora pipeline that brought them in is now getting a formal upgrade.
What makes this story particularly interesting is where it started. Fan groups and supporter-led scouting drove much of the early work, identifying players, making contact, and then facilitating meetings with the BFF. Supporters did the federation’s job before the federation knew it needed doing. That deserves recognition, not just a quiet nod.
Awal now wants to build on that foundation properly. The BFF plans to appoint scouts in several countries around the world, creating a structured system to identify and recruit Bangladeshi-heritage players. It is an overdue move, and if it is executed well, it could genuinely change the ceiling of what this national team can achieve.
