World Cup frenzy in Dhaka markets

FT ONLINE

With the greatest show on earth set to be held in the world's largest country for the first time in history, it presented a rare opportunity that the kick-off of the World Cup and Eid-ul-Fitr took place between a day's interval.

The shopping malls and markets usually spend their busiest time before the two Eids, the other being Eid-ul-Adha, and this time around, the sports shops are also passing a hectic time selling thousands of jerseys, flags, footballs and boots every day.

Most of the country's biggest wholesale and retailer markets for sports products are situated in Gulistan and these shops usually remain close Friday, even before the two Eids. An exception was witnessed on the last Friday before the mega event. The markets were open while the streets and footpaths were filled with temporary shops selling only flags or jerseys.

Somobay Twin Tower, situated between the Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium and Osmani Udyan, has its entire second and third floor dedicated to sports accessories, along with a portion of the fourth floor comprising more than 300 wholesale and retailer shops.

Saiful Islam of Imran Sports and Mohammad Ziaul Haq of Mukto Khelaghar informed that more than 90% of their business sales come from jerseys and flags.  

"Demand for sports accessories are less during the month of Ramadan. Sports shops always remain close Friday, even before the two Eids. The demand for jerseys and flags is the highest at the moment. We hope that the sales of footballs, boots and other sports equipments will increase during and after the World Cup," said Saiful.

As claimed by many of the shop staffs, two-storied wooden-made Railway Super Market is the oldest sports-product mall in Bangladesh. It has around 150 sports shops in its first floor. The shops also provide their clients a place to print their favourite footballer's name on the back of their recently-bought jersey.

"We print name and numbers on around 250-300 jerseys everyday. The price ranges from Tk50 to Tk100 per piece. The demand is now three times more due to the World Cup. [Lionel] Messi or Neymar are the most common choices among nine out of 10 clients," said the owner of Arif Screen Print.

The most on-demand sports products after jerseys and flags are footballs and boots, said Sayedur of Basic Ball that mainly sells football boots on wholesale across the country.