National women's football team’s training begins amid boycott

The on-field training session of the national women's football team began under head coach Peter James Butler at the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) today.

A Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) confirmed to the Daily Sun that 12 junior footballers attended the session while 18 senior footballers continued their boycott.

The players who were present in the training: Shaheda Akhtar Ripa, Kohati Kisku, Munki Khatun, Sapna Rani, Surma, Irene, Akalima, Surovi Akand Preeti, Zainab Begum, Arpita, Halima and Yarjan Begum.

It was the first on field session of the women footballers since the national women's team's SAFF winning campaign in October last year.

Also, it was the first footballing activity at the BNS since the biggest-ever renovation work of the country’s premier multipurpose sports venue began in late 2021.

The women footballers’ residential camp began with 30 footballers after around a two-month break on 15 January while Peter arrived in Dhaka and joined the camp last Monday.

Meanwhile, the senior footballers of the two-time SAFF champions Bangladesh national women’s football team boycotted their training under English head coach, with a demand of removal of Peter as their head coach, on the very next day on Tuesday.

BFF, in the wake of the boycott, formed a seven-member committee to investigate the issue.