Three BPL venues dropped

The professional football league of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) yesterday dropped three venues from the proposed seven for the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League, saying it would consume less time to complete the league, which starts on July 24.

“If the league is held at seven venues, it will take up to February next year to be completed and the clubs will have to pay more to their foreign players. So the meeting decided to hold the league at four venues – Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and Mymensingh – which will help end the league by the middle of December,” said BFF's senior vice president Abdus Salam Murshedy after the meeting.

The three other proposed venues – Gopalganj, Barisal and Rajshahi – have been dropped in face of demand of a few clubs, who had argued that extensive travel will lead to less recovery time for players.

Salam also cited that the international engagements of the national team and Sheikh Russel's participation in the AFC Cup have also inspired them to drop the venues.

The league committee also accepted the demand of the clubs to increase participation money Tk 40 lakh from proposed Tk 30 lakh.