Start of football season deferred to late November

The start of the 2024-25 football season has been deferred to late November owing to the unprepared grounds for the Bangladesh Premier League.

The decision was taken at an emergency meeting of Professional League Management Committee [PLMC] on Tuesday.

"The proposed venues of the upcoming season have not been prepared yet, which is why we have deferred the season which was supposed to start on October 11. The season will start in the latter part of November following requests from clubs as well as considering the overall situation," PLMC chairman and BFF vice-president Imrun Hasan in a video message following the virtual meeting.

The deferral means the season, which will comprise of Challenge Cup, Federation Cup and Bangladesh Premier League, will start after the much-hyped BFF elections on October 26.

The upcoming season was supposed to get underway with the one-off Challenge Cup match between league champions Bashundhara Kings and runners-up Mohammedan, while the Federation Cup and Bangladesh Premier League were supposed to get underway on October 15 and October 18 respectively.

The clubs had previously demanded at least eight weeks for the pre-season preparation but the PLMC had decided to start the season on October 11, deferring the first scheduled date of season's start by a week.

"We are hoping to make all venues playable in this timeframe to start the season in late November," Hasan added.