Congratulations, Bangladesh women's team!

We had a glorious past of football in Bangladesh. How popular football was from mid-1970s to early 2000s might sound like a fairy tale to the young generation. The passion was so high that we used to hoist the flags of our teams on rooftops and even engage in heated arguments as fans. However, those days are gone. Our men's football has been in tatters for years. The team has sunk to 192 in the FIFA rankings. Their future does not look promising.

Women's football, on the other hand, has brought the country's football-loving people again in front of their television sets and made them proud by becoming South Asia's top team. Making history, Bangladesh women's football team beat Nepal 1-3 goal to lift their maiden SAFF Women's Championship title. Two of those goals were courtesy of Krishna Rani Sarkar. Bangladesh came into the tournament like champions and inflicted on the South Asian giants India a 3-0 defeat. Bangladesh have been unstoppable and made it to the final winning all three group stage matches and a semi-final against Bhutan maintaining their clean sheet.

Women's football in Bangladesh, in its short history, has been a story of success, of breaking barriers and changing social norms. There needs to be more effort and financing to drive this social revolution forward so that our girls can bring home more honour for us.

Afroza Sheikh,

Dania, Dhaka,

ilcbd2008@gmail.com