BFF’s muddled logic courts controversy

There has always been controversy surrounding refereeing decisions in football grounds across the world and Bangladesh has proven no exception, with a couple of clubs recently raising questions about decisions that went against them in the just-concluded Federation Cup.

Such controversies have been a long-standing problem in Bangladesh football, which has led to national players, who become used to poor refereeing standards in the domestic circuit, being punished heavily during international assignments.

But despite clubs spending crores to form squads, they are time and again left to rue the standards of refereeing, which have hardly improved.

The Bangladesh Football Federation on Monday ruled out the appointment of foreign referees from the sub-continent to oversee crucial Bangladesh Premier League matches.

However, the reasoning behind their hesitation to appoint foreign referees really came as the biggest surprise.

"We are not thinking of the foreign referees [in Bangladesh Premier League] because foreign referees don't have an idea about which is a big team and which is a small team," BFF senior vice-president Abdus Salam Murshedy said.

Former FIFA referee Mansur Azad, who conducted top-flight football matches for in Bangladesh 17 years, disputed that notion. "I don't accept this opinion. During my refereeing career, I made mistakes but I never intended to make Abahani or Mohammedan winners."  "It is right that the comments from the BFF official means the current batch of referees is conducting the matches with the notion of big and small teams in mind. The duty of the referee is to complete a match smoothly within the rules and regulations," Azad said, adding that the federation should empower referees to blow the whistle without any kind of fear.