The National Sports Council (NSC) is seemingly backing off from signing a lease agreement with the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) over the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur.
The BFF had asked for a lease over the use of the stadium where they wanted to install an artificial turf with the assistance of FIFA under the Goalproject-4. According to BFF officials the NSC had responded positively to BFF's request. But the executive committee of NSC decided in a meeting recently that they would come to an agreement with BFF to let them use the venue, but not allow any lease.
The decision comes as a disappointment for the BFF since the FIFA does not finance any project on a venue if it is not owned or at least taken as lease by the federation.
BFF vice-president and development committee chairman Badal Roy has expressed his surprise at the news. “They had verbally committed during a meeting previously, in presence of the sports minister, to lease us the venue on a 20-year-term. I could not attend the latest meeting on 26 June, where I heard it has been decided to sign an MoU about use of the venue, not a lease. This decision will impact FIFA's financial assistance adversely,” said Roy.