Ruchi: The 36th National Women’s Handball competition, celebrating the Festival of Youth 2025, is set to commence on Saturday, August 16, at the Shaheed Captain M Mansur Ali National Handball Stadium in the capital. Youth and Sports Secretary Mahbub-Ul Alam is anticipated to officially inaugurate the event as the chief guest on Sunday, August 17, a day following the commencement of the competition.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, Md. Ali Hossain Fakir, additional inspector general of police of the Armed Police Battalion, and Md. Shahriar Alam, marketing manager of the sponsoring organization Square Food and Beverage Limited, will be present as special guests. The event, organized by the Bangladesh Handball Federation and sponsored by Square Food and Beverage Limited, will feature 19 teams, including services associations and District Sports Associations (DSA).
The competition will unfold in two phases. The first phase starts on August 16, involving 10 teams divided into two groups. Teams such as Bangladesh Ansar and VDP, Faridpur, Barguna, Sherpur, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh Police, Madaripur, Kushtia, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), and Dinajpur DSAs will compete in this phase. The second phase will commence on August 20, with nine teams split into two groups, featuring teams from Jamalpur, Naogaon, Jahangirnagar University, Panchagarh, Narail, Jashore, Dhaka, Bogura, and Gopalganj DSAs.
The semi-finals are scheduled for August 24, with the group champions from the four groups in the two rounds, while the final is slated for August 25. Notably, for the first time in the national women’s handball championship, cash prizes have been introduced. The champion team will receive a cash prize of Taka 25,000, the runner-up Taka 15,000, and the third-place team Taka 10,000.
In addition, the first eight participating teams will receive incentive bonuses of Taka 10,000. The best player will be awarded a trophy along with Taka 5,000, and for the first time, 14 players from each team will be paid Taka 100 per match. A press conference was held today (Thursday) at the conference room of Shaheed Captain M Mansur Ali National Handball Stadium to provide details about the event.
Present at the press conference were BHF senior vice-president and convener of the national competition organizing and development management committee Abu Nochor Mohammad Abdullah, its general secretary Salahuddin Ahmed, joint secretary of the BHF and member-secretary of the national competition organizing and development management committee Rashida Afzalun Nessa, BHF member and its joint member secretary Mokbul Hossain, and sponsor Square Food and Beverage Limited marketing manager Shahriar Alam.