The 18 senior players of Bangladesh national women's team, who have been boycotting training since head coach Peter Butler returned to the country, seem to have shot themselves on the foot after refusing to sign contracts offered by the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) on Monday.

The BFF offered new contracts to all 55 footballers in the BFF camp and 36 of those currently in training barring one who has left for BKSP, have accepted the contracts, thereby making themselves eligible for the payroll and available for consideration for the upcoming UAE tour for two friendly matches.

It has been learnt from a highly-placed source inside the federation that booking for flights to UAE has already been made.

Despite the fact the seven-member special committee formed to probe the issue found all the allegations raised by the players against Butlers to be baseless, BFF's new president Tabith Awal sat with each of the 18 players individually, trying to convince them to give up their demand of sacking Butler, assuring them that the coach would be more accommodating towards the players from now on.

As the rebellious footballers showed no signs yet of budging till yesterday, Tabith sat with captain Sabina Khatun in a last-ditch effort to come to an amicable solution.

Replying to a query from The Daily Star yesterday after a one-on-one meeting with Sabina, the BFF boss spoke of his optimism regarding the impasse which has now crossed into third week.

"I definitely see hope and positive signs of ending of this impasse. It's best to be patient and committed if we want to see a positive outcome," Tabith said. "We are all committed to resolving this situation and we will."

If the resolution does not arrive, it will be devastating for both these senior players as well as the women's football team. If left without contracts, these footballers, who were the cornerstones of two successive SAFF titles and a few more age-level successes, will eventually rot at the BFF dormitory without no regular source of income and a bleak future ahead. That will effectively undo all the good work done by the BFF over the last decade and push back women's football to a primitive stage.

While considering all efforts made by the BFF to appease the senior footballers over the last two weeks, a valid question that is being raised by former coaches and players is how it all came to this stage. Should the BFF and especially its women's wing led by Mahfuza Akter Kiron, who deservedly takes credit for the successes, have resolved the situation after the rift between the senior players and the coach had surfaced during the successful title-defence of SAFF Women's Championship in October last year?

Kiron is now saying she is considerate towards the footballers and has been shifting all the responsibilities towards Tabith since the coach's contract extension a month ago, but wasn't it herself who categorically said that Butler should remain the head coach since his contract ran out at the end of October last year?

It has been almost three-and-a-half months since that momentous triumph and that rift was swept under the rug in the immediate euphoria of the title-triumph. But as the euphoria subdued, couldn't the women's wing chairman have at least sat with the players once and heard their grievances and tried to resolve the issue before Butler's contract extension?

If that had happened, the situation might not have escalated to such an extent.