The Bangladesh Football Federation has banned former Sheikh Russel coach and chief technical director of Sheikh Jamal, Maruful Haque, from all football-related activities for a year and also fined him Tk30,000 for breaching the code of conduct.
The decision was taken at a professional football league committee meeting yesterday where the BFF also handed out punishments to Bangladesh Championship League sides Farashganj SC and Wari Club for match-fixing as the clubs were deducted nine and six points respectively.
Farashganj, who finished second in the second-tier last season, may now lose their right to promotion to top-flight football as they are now level with Agrani Bank on 26 points.
Farashganj were also fined Tk500,000 while Wari were fined Tk400,000 for fixing a championship league second-phase match on May 21 this year which ended in a 3-2 win in favour of Farashganj.
A number of Wari Club officials and players were also on the receiving end of the punishments dished out by football’s governing body. The joint secretary of the club, Mohidur Rahman Miraj, has been banned from all football-related activities that will be organised by the BFF while the club’s football secretary, Abdur Razzak Dilip, and member SM Farid received two-month bans.
The players who were also banned are - Uthing Singh Marma (three matches) and Abul Hasnat Bipul, Md. Saiful Islam and Md. Roman (two matches each).
Meanwhile, Maruful first came under the BFF’s disciplinary committee’s radar when he was quoted demanding the resignation of the professional league committee on February 28 this year during his time as head coach of Russel.