‘Unusual’ wage demands weaken WFL

The inclusion of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) teams has long been expected to make the country's Women's Football League (WFL) competitive.

However, the footballers' self-claimed wages forced the lone BPL team, Bashundhara Kings, to withdraw from applying for club licensing for the league's forthcoming fourth edition.

The absence of the Kings from the WFL means that the top-flight women's league is predicted to be even weaker, with many top players likely to remain inactive after the current year saw no women's league.

A maximum of ten teams, who submitted club licensing documents by the deadline of December 14, are anticipated to construct their own squads with their own resources. But it has not yet been determined how many teams will receive the licence.

First Instant Body (FIB), an AFC-prescribed body composed of members outside the Bangladesh Football Federation, is anticipated to hand over club licensing by January 10 before the league begins in early February.

Although Kings officials remained silent about their participation in the upcoming league, it has been learned that top women footballers demanded three to four times the remuneration they received from Kings in the league's previous edition, which was held in a single-leg format rather than the promised double-leg system.

"The players demanded unusual remuneration from us," said a Kings official requesting anonymity.

"A player who received Tk 4 lakh, made her demand Tk 15 lakh, while a player, who had received Tk 5 lakh, claimed Tk 20 lakh for the one-and-half month league, valuing themselves more than the male footballers who make contracts for 10 months for domestic and international competitions. So, we did not apply for the club licensing," he added.

After winning the SAFF Women's Championship, top woman footballers boycotted national team training for a few days, demanding a higher salary, more international matches, and domestic league regulation, and the BFF eventually compiled to some extent.

Women's football might have garnered substantial attention from the spectators but not from the clubs, who usually provide fuel for footballers. It thus appears that those footballers have seemingly stepped into their own trap without examining the reality.

It was further learned that Bangladesh Football Federation's (BFF) preferential treatment towards another woman's outfit -- run by a BFF vice president – has also played a role behind Kings' absence.