Sultan to talk to FIFA

The ice surrounding the relationship between football organisers inside and outside the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has seemingly begun to melt after a delegation of organisers and ex-players met federation president SA Sultan yesterday.
Ex-BFF general secretary Harunur Rashid, former national captain and BFF high-up Badal Roy, organisers Fazlur Rahman Babul, Shawkat Khan Jahangir, Nurul Alam Chowdhury and ex-national booters Sheikh Mohammed Aslam and Kaiser Hamid were part of the delegation that met the BFF boss at his office last afternoon.
The main point of discussion was the formation of DFAs (district and divisional football associations) ahead of the BFF elections.
"There have been some talking recently but I want to make one thing clear that the BFF has so far done everything under the directive of its controlling organisation FIFA. However, considering the socio-economic condition of the country, I have realised that there are many problems in implementing the FIFA directives," Sultan told reporters after the meeting.
"Although this realisation has come late, there is time to correct the mistakes.
"Today's discussion has been productive and I have received some constructive suggestions which I intend to take to FIFA," promised Sultan.
"The reality is that there would be legal and technical problems if we continue with the ongoing procedures of forming the DFAs.
"We all want to release the tension and make a level playground so that a strong and good committee comes out of it to run the game in the future," said Sultan, who denied daylong rumour of his resignation.
"I am still in the chair. My personal view is that the BFF is an autonomous body. In the past, however, the government had controlled this particular chair and it is natural that it would want the same again.
"I admit that there has been pressure on the BFF but we created this. Although we will have to open talks with the FIFA again, I still believe this delay would not hamper our election date," he added.
Harunur Rashid said on the part of the organisers and players that they were happy about the president's realisation.
"All we wanted to convey to him was that the steps taken by the BFF to form the DFAs are not practicable in the context of our socio-economic condition. The FIFA's design for the DFA is not applicable in a country like us due to lack of infrastructure," said Harun.
"It is better the BFF president himself tells this to the FIFA. We have given some suggestions so he can go and explain the situation. I hope tomorrow's BFF meeting will take decisions about this and help us solve this temporary problem through talks with the international bodies like FIFA and AFC.
"Had this open discussion been held at the initial stage, things would have not become so complicated," he added.
Badal Roy also expressed his satisfaction saying that the president has welcomed the public sentiment.
"The BFF chief has admitted the need of holding a general meeting because if the DFAs are formed without an EGM or an AGM, it would face legal battle.
"Also, the BFF is still working under the NSC acts where DFAs don't exist. It has to be amended. This would be the right way. I believe that his BFF colleagues have always opposed him to come to us for discussions or holding a general meeting.
"Now I hope that he would get the vote of confidence from his committee to present our situation to the world football governing body," the former footballer added.