Dhaka, December 28: The women’s football team captain said her team needed to beat Afghanistan to reach the semis. While Sabina Khatun was precise about her initial goal of getting to the semis at the SAFF women’s championship, this outing is more about an opportunity to compare team with those around South Asia.

This would give a good idea about where the team stands at a global level. This is all the more important since women’s football is one of the eight pillars of the Bangladesh Football Federation’s plan for football development.

Paul Smalley, the football federation’s technical director, thought the main goal was to ‘be competitive throughout the tournament continuing the development experience of all the players’. “Performances against Nepal and Afghanistan are critical, but the plan is to be ready and prepared for the first game.”

About the composition of the team, Smalley said the squad was a mixture of U16 players who are part of the broader development plan for the U17 World Cup qualifying tournament in September and young senior players who have been preparing for the last few months in the Federation's Residency programme.

He said the plans were both for the short and long term ranging from the next 12 months to the next four years. “The federation’s priority is elite player development and tournaments will be an important part of this.”

He said the squad’s younger players were there as part of a broader development programme and an ongoing commitment to elite player development.

As for the immediate plans for the team, Paul Smalley said “to be competitive in the [SAFF championship] and progress out of the group stage”.