Despite the nonappearance of top clubs like Bashundhara Kings, Mohammedan SC and Abahani in yesterday's view-exchange meeting on the Women's Football League (WFL), Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) women's committee chairperson Mahfuza Akter Kiran remained hopeful about holding a competitive WFL this year.

Kiran had invited the 10 clubs of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) along with clubs who took part in last year's WFL for the meeting but officials from only four BPL clubs – Brothers Union, Rahmatganj MFS, Bangladesh Police FC and Chittagong Abahani – turned up.

In the last edition, none of the BPL outfits participated in the WFL which also included hattrick champions Bashundhara Kings.

"We invited the existing WFL clubs and the top 10 clubs of Bangladesh in a view-exchange meeting because we are holding the WFL every year but the league has not really been competitive. We need to include the country's top clubs to make it better," said Kiran after the meeting at the BFF House.

Replying to a query, Kiran said, "The clubs you mentioned did not turn up maybe because they were busy. But I think those who turned up are also capable to make the women's league stronger with their participation."

The women's league is usually held in a single-league format but Kiran informed that the federation wants to introduce the double-league format in the WFL in order to get FIFA recognition.

"Our aim was to find the problems and limitations, so we can focus on those areas and move forward. I think we did that in the view-exchange meeting. The clubs wanted financial assistance from us because it is very challenging for them to continue in the women's league for six months," said Kiran adding that she would sit with the BFF marketing department and the BFF president to meet the clubs' demand.

Kiran also informed that the BFF is thinking of introducing 'players' pool system' to make the league competitive as the players then would be equally distributed among the participating teams, who must meet the club licensing conditions to be eligible for the WFL.