BPL at six venues outside Dhaka

The Professional Football League Committee (PFLC) yesterday decided to hold the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League in six venues outside Dhaka due to the ongoing renovation work at the country's premier venue Bangabandhu National Stadium.

It was also decided at the meeting to start the season with the Independence Cup on November 27 at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium with the participation of 12 BPL teams and four services teams. After the completion of the Independence Cup, the Federation Cup will get underway at the same venue.

Of the initial 20 venues across the country, the committee trimmed the 20-venue list to 10 before finalising it to Cumilla, Munshiganj, Gopalganj, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Tangail/Mymensingh. The Shaheed Ahsan Ullah Master Stadium in Tongi and the newly-built Bashundhara Complex ground were kept on standby for use in emergency cases.

"Considering circumstances and reality, clubs have agreed to play BPL matches outside Dhaka and the venues have been selected with the nod of all clubs. Each venue will have two home teams, thus 12 professional clubs will play home-and-away matches at six venues across the country," BFF senior vice-president and PFLC chairman Abdus Salam Murshedy said after the meeting at the BFF House yesterday.

Club representatives informed they had come to know the venues to take a final decision on selecting a home venue after discussing the matter with their respective clubs' higher-ups.

However, the representative of Mohammedan SC was not allowed to attend the PFLC meeting citing the name of the representative was not approved yet.