Premier League only in name?
With only two days left before the start of the 9th Bangladesh Premier League, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) is seemingly in a mess, failing to iron out details such as the final fixtures, selection of match officials, allocation of practice grounds and not properly communicating with the clubs.
The game's governing body could not finalise the fixtures of the league till 9:00pm last night, keeping all the participants and media in the dark as well as raising questions about the federation's professionalism.
It is nothing new that the BFF has failed to provide fixtures for the entire league yet again, something that has been demanded by many clubs over the years. However, it still seems to be a distant dream for the coaching staff, who always struggle to tailor their training following the schedule's frequent changes.
The lack of strictness of the professional football league committee, led by BFF senior vice-president Abdus Salam Murshedy is reportedly to blame for the fixture debacle. Due to the league committee's casual approach, a joke is going around the BFF House that even if a spectator urges the league committee or its chairman to defer the league due to personal problems, he would certainly get the nod.
The poor standard of refereeing has also been a concern in both the Independence Cup and Federation Cup, which left a couple of big matches in a chaotic state. Sheikh Jamal DC claimed that the first two goals they conceded against Abahani in the Independence Cup semifinal were both offside while Brothers Union claimed that the match officials blew the whistle for a goal in favour of Abahani in the Federation Cup quarterfinal despite Abbas Inussah clearing the ball off the goalline. The coaches of the bottom-table teams also claimed that they had always been victims of poor refereeing when facing giants.
After the completion of the Federation Cup, the game's governing body has not held any refresher courses for match officials though they organised lectures for the clubs to enhance their understanding of the new laws of the game before the start of the Federation Cup, as referees were booed by the clubs officials for their decisions in the Independence Cup.
It has been learnt that the fitness test of the match officials will take place today, just one day before the start of the league, raising obvious question about the sincerity of the referees committee which promised to do everything to reduce the mistakes of the match officials during league matches.
After the BFF elections in April, it was almost clear that Saif Global Sport Ltd was going to have the commercial rights of the Bangladesh Premier League and hold it at different venues, including Dhaka, but the league committee so far did not make any feasible study in a bid to hold the league outside the capital, thus the practice grounds of the participating teams have not been confirmed yet at all venues according to the BFF grounds committee. The rainy season also added to the organisers woes.
The game's governing body had already been forced to drop three venues out of seven according to the the participating clubs' demands, who have reportedly demanded to fix their matches as per their convenience, raising questions of the necessity to have a professional football league committee.
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