The disagreements Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) and the national players have yet to be resolved, but federation general secretary Khwaja Rahmatullah said they will sit with the players soon to draw iron out a solution. Rahmatullah also held Ariful Haque Prince, general secretary of players' welfare association, responsible for all the trouble. The players earlier boycotted the national camp as well as all kind of hockey activities to demand a date being set for the pre-season players’ transfer. The League Committee, however, decided to hold the transfers a week after its executive committee election. In its second day of the protest by the hockey players, general secretary of BHF Khwaja Rahmatullah termed the players' decision illogical and is hopeful of straightening out matters soon. Rahmatullah said, "The decision the players took, we hope that we will draw a final conclusion after meeting/sitting with the players. According to hockey yearly calendar, the transfer window is scheduled to open on May 28. I don’t understand why the players started their protest long before the date which is very unfortunate. But we are not planning to go on hard line, just yet now. "We have done everything for the players and for hockey - to make it a regular on the field. If the games continue, the players could get their money and their financial problems would also be solved. But we never had intention to interrupt their progress. The clubs don’t want the transfer window to open. So it's not a big deal to defer the transfer for a month," he concluded. The tenure of the players' welfare association committee is two years. Prince is keeping the post of GS for eight long years and there was no election for this post during this time. Rahmatullah blamed Prince for the situation and questioned his position. "Prince is behind all these scrapes. He is showing two faces; as a representative of Mohammedan, he requests us to defer the transfers. Then he induce the hockey players to protest against the federation for an illogical reason. "Prince retired from hockey three years ago but he is still on the post of general secretary of the players' welfare association. Although, when we formed the association, it was clearly said in the constitution that only current players are eligible to be the member and organisers of the association," continued Rahmatullah. Prince denied Rahmatullah’s account of matters and said that the players had been forced to protest. "This is a lie. This association is for both the current and former players. I don’t want to keep the GS post but the players don’t want me to resign from the post," said Prince, former national midfielder. "This is a conspiracy of Rahmat bhai (Khawja Rahmatullah). He is trying to defer the election in many ways. I'm always with the players whatever the situation is," he added. Wing commander Rafiul Hoque spoke about the situation on behalf of BHF president Enamul Bari. "This is very unexpected and unfortunate. We hope the situation will be solved very soon."
Monday, March 17, 2025
