Bangladesh Football Federation’s aim of hosting Bangabandhu Gold Cup Football took a structured shape as the executive committee of the countries football ruling body officially approved the tournament in a meeting held at the BFF House yesterday.
BFF from now on will take the required step to materialise the tournament at the end of the September. BFF has already sent out invitations to Qatar, Yemen, Pakistan, Thailand, Bahrain, Nepal and Kuwait while the latter two has already accepted the offer. However, some of the teams have asked for a deferment of the tournament. Thailand has been asking for two weeks and Kuwait has asked for a week delay. It was decided that BFF president Kazi Salahuddin will take the necessary initiatives and if needed will also visit the countries.
BFF senior vice-president Abdus Salam Murshedy was focusing upon the revival of the international football tournaments in the country. “We have not been successful of hosting any international football tournaments for a long time and we hope that with the Bangabandhu Gold Cup we will be able to pull the tempo back. We are looking forward to some competitive football and hope Bangladesh will be in good form after the Saff Championship,” said Salam.
However, Salam’s statement regarding the relegation of the Arambagh raised the eye-brows of many press people as he said Arambagh will be relegated to the Bangladesh Championship League from the Bangladesh Premier League as per the by-laws. BFF president Kazi Salahuddin a few days back said no team will be relegated from the last edition of the BPL as AFC has asked to increase the number of clubs in the top-flight football league of the country.
The meeting also decided to release the calendar of the next season and it will be finalised in a league committee meeting tomorrow. The two-day theory of BPL will also be finalised as BFF wants to hold the matches on Fridays and Saturdays only. The three proposed venues of the BPL - Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet’s fate will also be drawn to a conclusion in the meeting.