‘No money’ for Seychelles booters

It has more or less been clear that Seychelles national football squad are full of amateur booters who play at the weekend after managing their individual jobs but the fact that they earn nothing through the sport is perhaps a quite surprising to the football-loving people of Bangladesh, who are used to seeing the country's national booters being paid millions of takas per season.

Despite Bangladesh footballers possessing the tag of professional footballers, interestingly, there is only seven-point difference in FIFA ranking as Bangladesh are ranked 192 while Seychelles 199.

According to Seychelles captain Stenio Marie, he himself is a boat skipper while others are doing jobs in different sectors such as tourism, agriculture, health, teaching, and construction. However, all of them are very passionate about playing football on Friday and Saturday on the back of a one-day training on Monday.

Nearly 500 of the 90-thousand population, as per Seychelles head coach Neville Vivian Both, play football in the Island state and they are being selected for the national team on the basis of the Championship League in Seychelles.

In comparison, Bangladeshi footballers are playing the domestic competitions round the year on the back of well-structured training backed by the professional coaching staff but their performance at international level is not up to mark.

"All the players first work, then go to play football. They have to work to earn money because football is just kind of a pass time there. Besides, as we have the league, the players have to play the competitive league," said Both at the pre-match conference in Sylhet on Friday, adding that his charges are doing jobs in tourism industries, health ministry, agriculture, construction, and teaching.

"If you are an amateur footballer [in Seychelles], there is no money for you. But if you play well and win, the sponsors can give you 500 rupees which is worth 30 US dollars and it comes from the company.

"If the clubs can manage money from outside, then they pay something to the players."

When Bangladesh captain Jamal Bhuiyan was asked why they could not progress despite having the professional structure in domestic competition as well as professional coaching staff, he said, "It is difficult to explain because it is all about performance."

The Seychelles did not get into the professional-amateur debate but he believes that a good setup at the grassroot level is the key to football development.

"I don't know … If you have a good setup in the grassroot, all countries can improve. If you have a good setup, it won't take much time. Win or loss is not all about. If the players are improving, playing style is progressing, then it's a good sign. So, I can see Bangladesh is progressing since we played against them in 2021. I can't compare between amateur or professional," said Both.