Super Cup back on

After a few weeks of will it or won't it, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) finally took the decision to hold the Super Cup between June 14-25 with a fraction of the prize money and perhaps without the participation of traditional giants Mohammedan Sporting Club.
Following a meeting with the clubs yesterday, BFF president Kazi Salahuddin confirmed that all the clubs apart from Mohammedan had agreed to participate in the third edition of the tournament.
"I am very thankful to the clubs officials that they have agreed to play the Super Cup, which will start from June 14 with the participation of local players. The final will be held on June 25," said Salahuddin.
He said, "Mohammedan will let us know about their decision tomorrow [Friday], but even if they don't want to play, the tournament will be held without them."
There were rumours doing the round that Mohammedan had said that their participation would be subject to a Mohammedan member being appointed the manager of the national football side, but the members' in charge of the club Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan denied the allegation.
"It is a stupid whisper and baseless. Mohammedan never plays any tournament by imposing any condition.
The reality is that we are not going to take part the tournament because of the unavailability of the players, who were released from the camp soon after the completion of the Bangladesh Premier League," said Lokman.
Mohammedan have a good record in the Super Cup, emerging champions in the inaugural edition in 2009 and finishing runners-up in the second edition held in 2011.
The total budget of the tournament will remain the same but the prize money of the champions will be reduced to Tk 50 lakh from Tk one crore.
The prize money of the runners-up will remain Tk 20 lakh and the rest of participating teams will get Tk 15 lakh each as participation money.
Explaining the reason behind such curtailing of the prize money, the BFF chief said, "We had not provided any participation money to the clubs in the previous two editions and this decision was taken because of the request from the participating clubs."