League committee to discuss start of season with all clubs

The Daily Star August 19, 2020
Sports Reporter

In a quest for starting the new football season in the new normal, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) is all set to sit with the clubs of Bangladesh Premier League at the BFF House on Thursday afternoon — some four-and-an-half months after the professional football league committee had a meeting with the clubs in late March to suspend the professional football league.

On August 11, the BFF executive committee discussed the matter of starting the season as soon as possible though some club officials opposed, citing financial constraint amid coronavirus pandemic. It was decided in the meeting that the professional league committee sit with the clubs.

BFF president Kazi Salahuddin also emphasized on the start of the new season after Bangladesh’s international engagement was halted following the suspension of World Cup and Asian Cup Qualifiers last week.

“As per the directives of the executive committee, we are going to sit with the clubs to discuss the start of new season. We want to share our preliminary thoughts and try to understand the pulse of the clubs though we have already sent our initial proposal to open the players’ transfer window in late September and start the season in late November through the Federation Cup before starting the Bangladesh Premier League in late December,” said BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag told The Daily Star today.

Replying to a query, Shohag said, “We are not thinking of starting the league with only the interested clubs who want to play because we first want to hear from all the clubs before trying to reach a solution.”

“We will also sit with the players next week to get their opinions to settle down the payment issue of last season because we are hoping to get the opinions from the clubs about the payment issue tomorrow. Afterwards, the professional football league committee will be trying to come up with a solution for both clubs and the players,” said Shohag.