MD ANWAR ULLAH, Dhaka: National football team’s head coach Jamie Day favours the idea of restricting foreign players’ quota in domestic competition for the greater good of local players as well as the national team.
Meanwhile, the league committee of the local football’s governing body Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has settled the issue of overseas booters’ quota with consent of majority clubs i.e., 11 out f 13 teams.
The league committee has taken a decision to allow four overseas booters for registration and as many on the field in a match.
While talking to The Independent over phone from London Tuesday on the issue of limiting the number of foreign booters, English coach Jamie said, “Well, I’d like to see as many local and national team players playing so they get match experiences, playing in correct position and maintaining optimum level of fitness. But the clubs need good foreign players so that they can learn from them as part of improvement.”
Asked about the number of foreign players for registration and a match, he said, “It’s very difficult to comment because as the national team coach I would be happy with three foreign players, but if I were club manager I would want 4 or 5. However, I think from the point of national team’s view I would prefer two foreign players in starting 11 and three in the squad. But I can understand why the bigger clubs want four or more as they want to compete in the AFC.”
Earlier, some experienced local coaches like Saiful Bari Titu, AKM Maruful Haque and former national team captain Mamunul Islam also talked to The Independent about foreign players’ quota.
Titu and Mamunul extended support for two players on a match as is echoed by Jamie. Maruful, however, mooted the idea of playing this season without any foreign player(s).
Jamie also sounded to be a bit concerend about players’ fitness after a long interval. “I think, almost all the national teams are in a similar position. I can see that the teams that have better local and national facilities will get their players back into shape quicker. In Bangladesh, some clubs have the facilities but not every other club.”
He continued, “If you look at our World Cup group, other teams’ players have far greater facilities than our players to get back to their peak shape.”
He also said that he doesn’t know yet as to when matches will take place. Hence, he said, if the league starts before international games, we will have to rely on the clubs to get them fit.
Jamie was supposed to arrive with his four colleagues on August 16, but couldn’t due to deferral of the match schedules. Since then, he has been waiting for better days to join his boys. “Yes, I look forward to seeing and working with boys. I believe we’ll have a busy schedule with matches and tournaments next year.”UNB
