'I'll go to jail if it's proven'
Having denied the allegations of financial anomalies brought forward by the 'Save Football' movement, Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin said that he was ready to be imprisoned if the allegations could be proven.
"There has been a catchy word; corruption, corruption and corruption. 'He is corrupted, he is a thief'. Yesterday [Wednesday] an claim was brought against me, alleging that I spend FIFA and AFC money for myself. If anyone can prove that I have an account at home or abroad in which I transfer the FIFA and AFC funds, I am ready to accept any type of punishment -- even a 10-year imprisonment. But they will have to apologize through the media upon the failure of the probe," said Salahuddin at a press briefing at the BFF House yesterday.
The BFF boss broke his silence after a group of organisers and former footballers led by Sheikh Jamal president Manjur Kader and Mohammedan director-in-charge Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan, under the banner 'Save Football' brought allegations criticising him for financial anomalies, the poor state of the national football team, and the lack of development at the grassroots level during his tenure.
"There is no room to steal money from the BFF account as I am running country's football by begging from others. Three months ago FIFA okayed the BFF account after FIFA-appointed firm KPFC audited it for 23 days," said Salahuddin. "I am a person who was not charged for financial corruption by FIFA, whereas organisers from Sri Lanka, Nepal and Thailand were charged. I have come from such a family whose two members -- my uncle and I-- were awarded Independence Awards together.
"I really felt bad the way they used words against me. How they could use such words in this civil society," questioned Salahuddin, who also revealed that some former footballers including Jakaria Pinto took financial benefits from him.
Salahuddin blamed the feud among the clubs over the footballers for the poor results of the national team in recent past and claimed that winning the SAFF Under-16 Championship and AFC Under-14 Women's Regional Championship were evidence of the development activities carried out by the BFF.
The BFF boss also claimed that they stopped the activities of the Sylhet football academy upon instructions from FIFA to hire foreign coaching staffs and that they were trying to get the government allocation of the Sylhet academy for 15 to 20 years as per the sponsor's demand.
"Those who held the meeting, they had no contribution to football. I invite all of them to come to the BFF election on April 30 to serve football after being elected. Please don't demand something illegal, rather help me to take football to a certain level," appealed Salahuddin, who promised that the game's governing body would play a neutral role for all clubs if he was elected for the third term, citing that he learnt from his mistakes.
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