State Minister for Youth and Sports, Md Aminul Haque, addressed a meeting today at the National Sports Council with representatives from various sports federations, associations, and organizations. Photo: Ministry

DHAKA, Feb 23, 2026 (BSS) - State Minister for Youth and Sports Md Aminul Haque today said all stakeholders must work in unity to take the country’s sports arena to a new height, emphasizing that sports is one of the most powerful means of uniting people beyond party lines, caste and creed.

“A sports-friendly environment would be created to make the federations self-reliant and financially solvent. To take the sports sector to a new height, we must work unitedly,” he said.

The state minister was addressing a consultative meeting on “Implementation and Development of Sports Planning” held at the conference room of the National Sports Council with representatives of various sports federations, associations and organizations.

Referring to the successes, failures and existing challenges in the sports arena over the past one year, he said each federation has been directed to submit a detailed evaluation report within the next seven working days to identify the problems and chart future actions. 

The federations have assured that they would submit the reports within the stipulated time.

About the elections of different sports federations, he said the government wants to initiate a transparent and fair election process from the grassroots level. In phases, elections will be held at upazila, district and divisional levels before completing the formal elections of the sports federations.

Aminul Haque said initiatives are being taken to establish sports as a profession. National-level athletes will be brought under a specific salary structure. All federations have been asked to prepare a list of their national players, which will be scrutinized to formulate a concrete action plan to support them.

He also announced that the “Notun Kuri Sports” programme aimed at discovering talented athletes will be launched immediately after the holy Eid-ul-Fitr.

The meeting also discussed identifying problems of inactive federations and merging similar federations where necessary. Emphasis was laid on reducing tax on sports equipment and encouraging investment of CSR funds of scheduled banks in the sports sector.