The brilliant women of Bangladesh maintained the phenomenon of winning every age-group football tournament that they have participated in by clinching the SAFF U-19 Women's Championship. Mahfuza Akter Kiron, chairman of Bangladesh Football Federation's women's wing and an executive member of FIFA and BFF, is considered the organiser that has taken the girls to stratospheric heights and she spoke to The Daily Star's Anisur Rahman about the past, present and future of women's football. The excerpts are below:

On what has played a role in the success: Continuous training and a disciplined lifestyle are major reasons behind this success. For years, we have been providing them with proper food in line with a plan prepared by a nutritionist and we offer counselling twice a week to keep them ready.

On the next step for the women's football team: Our next target is to be a good senior women's team in Asia and compete for a place in the FIFA Women's World Cup. We have been trying to shape the senior national women's team gradually because it is impossible to suddenly form a senior team with women who don't know how to play football. I believe we will have a strong women's football team within the next three to four years with this group of players having an average age of 23 at the time. We now have 70 plus players in the camp.

On what course has been set to make a strong national team: I must admire technical director Paul Smalley and his role in this success. He designed everything, right from the training schedule for all women teams. Head coach Golam Rabbani Choton has also played a tremendous role in their success. As we don't have a proper senior women's team, we are focusing on developing age-group teams to eventually form a good senior team. We are hunting players from the JFA U-14 and UNICEF football competitions every year to prepare a good backup for the U-15 team. If you watch the girls across age-group competitions, they play at the same pace and rhythm and that means they are now more physically fit and capable of competing at the international level.

On the facilities that the BFF is providing: The girls are getting all types of training facilities: technical, tactical, theoretical, practical, gym and swimming. We are also providing them with financial benefits ranging from Tk 3500 to Tk 12000. I want to thank BFF president Kazi Salahuddin for arranging the financial benefit for the players.

On whether such facilities are good enough to enable them to reach the next level: Yes, I think so. Our main problem is related to financial constraints. At the moment, we have convinced some sponsors to run women's football, but it is a really hard job to manage sponsors. You can run women's football through the sponsors but, to be honest, you can't reach that level without financial help from the government.

On the need for government funding: The players compete in domestic competitions as well as age-group international competitions regularly but they can't play competitive international matches at the senior level. If we get regular financial help from the government, we can put forth a proper plan and play four to five international friendlies against strong sides like Japan, South Korea, Australia and China every year. Thus, the players can mature and gain experience. The coaching staff will also get an idea of what is required to improve the standards of the team.

On the difficulty strengthening the senior women's team due to girls being pressured by their families to get married: It happened in the past but now the ratio of women's footballers getting married is low because we discussed the issue with their parents twice a year to help them understand the benefits of letting their girls play football. The girls are providing financial support to their families through football. So, I am convinced that they won't drop out and we can form a strong senior women's team in the future.