BFF deny Kings request

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) have denied a request from big-spending Bashundhara Kings to reschedule their Walton Federation Cup semifinal fixture. The club sought a deferral due to the unavailability of their Kyrgyz midfielder Baktyiar Duishobekov.

Baktyiar, who plays as a defensive midfielder for newcomers Bashundhara, was called up for national duty as Kyrgyzstan is scheduled to play a FIFA friendly against Japan on November 20, the same day that Bashundhara are scheduled to face Sheikh Russel KC in the Federation Cup's second semifinal at Bangabandhu National Stadium.

“Bashundhara Kings made a request to hold the semifinal after the arrival of their Kyrgyz player, who has gone to play for his national team but according to FIFA bylaws, there are no hard and fast rules that a member association can't hold the domestic competition during the FIFA window,” said BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag, adding that they issued their reply to Bashundhara a couple of days ago.

“Deferring the match is at the discretion of the member association. However, we could not keep their request because the professional league committee has already fixed the dates of those matches while we have to start the professional league from Nov 30. So it was not possible to defer their match,” added Shohag.