The organisers of Dhaka football, who over the years had been enjoying healthy coffers by hosting crowd-favourite Premier League, has recently borrowed money from the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) to pay staff salary.

"We have taken one lakh taka as loan from the BFF to meet the necessary expenses. But we are hopeful of overcoming the dry spell once we get the money from the sponsors," said DMFLC secretary Mozammel Haq Mukta to The Daily Star Sport last night.

The DMFLC this year sold out the title sponsorship rights for the two-tire Leagues to Western Union for an amount of Tk. 25 lakh. But the American-based money traders are yet to disburse the first installment though the Premier Division Football League already reached the halfway mark.

"Since we are dealing directly with the Hong Kong office of the multinational company, it took some time to complete all the formalities. Hopefully, we will get half of the total sum from them after the Eid," said Mukta.

But sponsorship money had never been a cause for concern for DMFLC. The worrying aspect was the poor gate receipt. They have only earned seven lakh taka as gate money from the first-leg of the country's most prestigious League.

This is a sorry figure compared to what they had earned only a decade ago. In 1995 the Dhaka football organisers earned a record amount of Taka two crore through gate receipts.

The turn out of football fans experienced a sharp decline after the game lost its popular appeal to an ever-improving cricket in the recent years.

Besides, the shifting of the most lucrative domestic football competition to Mirpur's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium from the all-purpose Bangabandhu National Stadium also ended in a drastic drop in spectators' interest.