The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) is facing intense backlash over a chaotic coaching strategy that has seen Technical Director Saiful Bari Titu repeatedly abandon his structural duties to sit in the dugout, culminating in a flawed AFC Under-17 Women’s Asian Cup qualification campaign in Uzbekistan.
Appointed to the crucial administrative post on 1 April 2024, Titu was tasked with drafting the long-term blueprint for Bangladesh football.
His primary brief was to oversee academy structures, drive grassroots development, and elevate coach education across the country. Instead, the veteran football tactician has spent far more time barking instructions from the touchline than sitting in his policy-making chair, creating a deep sense of frustration within the local sporting fraternity.
The controversy reached a boiling point when the women’s under-17 squad returned from Tashkent earlier Tuesday. Despite a dedicated local coaching staff preparing the girls for months, the federation abruptly handed Titu the managerial reins just before the tournament. The warning signs flashed early during a poor preparatory tour in Jordan in September, where the team’s tactical disjointedness and severe fitness gaps were laid bare on the pitch. During the main qualifiers in October, a spirited 2-1 opening victory over hosts Uzbekistan on 8 October provided a brief glimmer of hope. However, that result was quickly overshadowed by a collapse against the Philippines, exposing the federation’s stop-gap planning. Strikingly, highly experienced local figures like Golam Robbani Choton travelled to Uzbekistan merely as assistant coaches, while the technical director parachuted into the top job.
This touchline obsession is part of a recurring pattern of makeshift appointments. Titu’s first major dugout mission as technical director ended in a dismal SAFF Under-17 Championship campaign with the boys’ team in Bhutan in late 2024, yielding zero wins and an unceremonious exit in November. Rather than learning from that failure, the federation doubled down on its dual-role policy, appointing him head coach of the men’s under-23 national team on 23 July 2025. While essential long-term planning files regarding domestic football gather dust at the federation headquarters, the chief policymaker remains constantly distracted by short-term training camps and international fixtures.
Former Bangladesh national football team star Zahid Hasan Ameli heavily criticised the federation’s approach, questioning the entire local coaching ecosystem and the logic behind such decisions.
“It is completely illogical and entirely unacceptable,” Ameli stated firmly. “A technical director’s job is not to act as the head coach for age-group teams, senior teams, or any specific side. His job is to provide a comprehensive football plan for the federation over the next two, three, or five years. Nursing specific teams or running daily training sessions is simply not his responsibility.”
Ameli also raised serious concerns about the value of local coaching licenses if the federation consistently bypasses them for their own technical director.
“Every year we are handing out coaching certificates. Where are these coaches going? Do they not have the capability to represent these teams on the touchline? If they cannot do the job properly, why are they being given A-licenses and Pro-licenses directly from Bangladesh? If you select and license them, why are they not given the responsibility of the age-group teams? It truly boggles the mind why the technical director has to leave his desk to do this.”
Kamrul Hasan Hilton, chairman of the federation’s Technical Committee, also admitted his unease with the recurring situation.
“I was out of Dhaka at the time, but I did voice my disagreement over his travel because he has other significant responsibilities,” Hilton stated. “According to the guidelines, he cannot manage the senior national team or the under-23 side, though there is no explicit barrier for youth age-group sides. Still, he definitely should not be going. Under BFF president Tabith Awal’s initiative, we are trying to raise our coaching standards. We produce a large quantity of coaches, but establishing true quality takes a little more time.”
Despite the mounting criticism and a glaring lack of accountability following repeated tournament exits, the federation has shown no signs of altering its approach. With the technical director continually stepping into part-time coaching roles, the broader philosophy and future development of Bangladesh football remain severely neglected.
