The much-awaited Bangladesh Premier Football League is all set to miss out on its April 3 kick-off date. Clouds of uncertainty are lingering once again over whether the ball will roll in the top-flight in the near future.
In the last few years, the BPFL usually got underway in late December or the beginning of January but this season it has been deferred by four months owing to the national side’s busy schedule in various tournaments, especially the third Bangabandhu Gold Cup.
The previous proposed date of kick-off was March 9 but it was later postponed due to the Bangladesh Under-23 team’s commitment in the AFC U-23 Championship Group E Qualifiers that ended on March 31.
It has been a little less than nine months since the last edition of the BPFL concluded. Muktijoddha and Uttar Baridhara Club faced each other in the final match of the seventh edition on July 25 last year.
In the last meeting of the Bangladesh Football Federation’s professional league committee last Monday, the participant clubs could not come to a conclusion over the amount of appearance money and the meeting was later adjourned.
The meeting was scheduled to resume yesterday at 4pm but the committee once again adjourned it at 2:45pm to a later date. However, some club representatives claimed that they were not notified of the postponement. Sheikh Russel KC director of sports Saleh Zaman Selim and Chittagong Abahani manager Shakil Mahmud Chowdhury said yesterday they did not know the meeting was postponed and only came to know when they arrived at the BFF House.
It was also learned that the BFF has failed to clear the previous dues of some clubs. Sheikh Russel officials claimed that they owe the BFF Tk4.5m while Sheikh Jamal DC and Abahani reportedly owe football’s governing body Tk5-6m each.
This season, the clubs have demanded a bigger amount of appearance money. Previously, the amount was Tk1m but the clubs are now demanding Tk2.5m. The BFF has not ruled out their demand but at the same time did not confirm their request. Hence, the delay in the BPFL kick-off date.
The professional league committee will sit for a meeting tomorrow where the new kick-off date of the BPFL’s eighth edition is likely to be finalised.
