Nat’l football c’ship from Jan 17

The National Football Championship will make a return after a gap of 13 years as the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has decided to start the Bangabandhu National Football Championship involving district football teams as well as services teams, university teams and education board teams from January 17, 2020.

Formerly known as Sher-e-Bangla National Football Championship, the nation-wide football tournament was last held in 2006. The game’s local governing body took the decision to revive this championship, naming it after the father of the nation as part of birth centenary celebration of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

A meeting in this regard was held at the BFF house yesterday in presence of district, division and services and university teams.

“The initial plan was to start the championship from January 10. But the meeting decided to start it from January 17. There will be around 78 teams taking part in the initial phase of the championship, which will be held in different zones, with a certain number of teams competing for final round tickets after home and away matches in those zones,” BFF’s general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag told The Daily Star.

“This championship will revive football at district level and make use of stadiums across the country. We hope to end the tournament in three months,” the BFF GS added.