Maruful Haque is probably one of the most successful coaches in the country’s domestic football arena under the guidance of whom Sheikh Russell won historic treble last season. However, none of these facts mattered when the club sacked the coach yesterday.
The 46-year-old Montenegrin coach Dragan Djukanovic is set to replace Maruf during the second phase of the Bangladesh Premier League. It was learnt that the new coach had already arrived in Dhaka on Saturday to take charge of the team.
Maruful Haque was not the only one to lose his job though; his assistant coach Zulfiqar Ali Mintu as well as the goalkeeping coach was also shown the exit door.
After winning three silverwares to complete treble last year, Sheikh Russell’s performance graph has gone down drastically this season which saw them lose some key players like Sony Norde, Mamunul Islam, Zahid Hassan Emily and Jahid Hossain even before the season began.
After an unprecedented successful campaign last year, Maruf extended the contract with the club for a payment of Tk 1.8m. Since then Russell’s performance in two professional tournaments- season opener Federation Cup and the recently concluded Independence Cup, have not been satisfactory as they crashed out from both the tournaments in the quarterfinal. Their poor display has affected them badly in the league too where they sit third with only nine points. These are the reasons which triggered the sacking of Maruful Haque in the middle of the season.
Maruf was unreachable though as his phone was found switched off. Sheikh Russell president Nurul Alam Chowdhury confirmed the news of his sacking.
“We are grateful to Maruful Hauqe for providing the club with the treble last season. But the ongoing season has not been good for us as we have lost the Federation Cup and Independence Cup. We are not in a good position in the league as well,” said Nurul Alam yesterday.
“But what disappointed us most was the performance of the team in the recently concluded Independence Cup. We felt that the team could have done a lot better. Since there is a case for accountability, we have decided to sack the whole coaching staff including the head coach,” he added. “I want to make it clear that the decision was taken through full professionalism after discussing the matter with the coaches.”
Maruful Haque took the charge of Sheikh Russell for the second time in 2011-12 season and during his three years time with the club, Maruf once refused Bangladesh Football Federation’s (BFF) offer to work as an assistant coach of the national team.
