Despite not securing any sponsors, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) is set to kick off the next edition of Bangladesh Premier League from Friday.
The decision taken in the previous meeting of the Professional League Committee was reaffirmed in the meeting that was held at the BFF House yesterday. BFF also altered their previous plans of three match days due to the existing political turmoil in the country.
Instead of two matches per day, there will be one match per day in the five match days in a week and all the matches will be held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium. Considering the political climate, the BFF has decided to consider holding some games at the Gazipur and Manikganj but the decision has not yet been finalised.
A matter that remains to be resolved is sponsorship for the tournament. Walton, the leading conglomerate of the country, may arrive as saviors by sponsoring the event but the BFF has been struggling to fix a sponsor for the sole professional league in the country for the last few months and the existing political turmoil has pushed them onto the back-foot. Walton, who sponsored the recently concluded Federation Cup, discussed options with the federation at the BFF yesterday. “The discussion will be continued, it not final yet but Walton has the intention of being the sponsors of the BPL. The issue will be settled shortly,” said F.M. Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn, the additional director of Walton.
Abdus Salam Murshedy, the senior vice president of BFF and the chairman of the Professional League Committee, said they are confident of finishing the calendar by June. “We will hold the Independence Cup and it will take 15 days to wrap the tournament up. Otherwise, the league will be a continuing process and we want to finish the league and the Super Cup before the World Cup (of football) starts,” said Murshedy.
