District football in BFF boss’s portfolio
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin announced himself as the chairman of the District Football League Committee yesterday, a week after he had said that holding the district leagues was not his responsibly following his re-election.
The new executive committee of the game's local governing body sat for its first meeting, with 18 out of 20 members present. The meeting formed 19 out of 21 sub-committees.
There were hardly any changes in the sub-committees as senior vice-president Abdus Salam Murshedy, vice-president Kazi Nabil Ahmed, members Mafuza Akter Kiron, Harunur Rashid and Bijon Barua were retained as chairmen of their previous committees. Newly-elected vice-presidents Imrul Hasan and Ataur Rahman Bhuiyan were named as chairman of Dhaka Metropolis league committee and development committee respectively.
Salahuddin, however, kept to himself the district football league committee, which was overseen by Chattogram Abahani director Tarafder Ruhul Amin in the preliminary stage of the last tenure.
"I'm taking responsibility of district football as leagues are not held there but this time I will look into the matter so that I won't need to depend on anyone to fill the gaps [between the BFF and district], said Salahuddin.
"I will make sure every district will have its league and I will financially support them. I will show that the district football committee can be stronger than any other committee. We will also monitor district leagues strongly. If districts fail to hold leagues despite taking initiatives, the administration will take over the responsibility to hold the league," said Salahuddin, who in his first tenure from 2008 to 2012 provided only a token money to District Football Associations (DFAs) for decoration of their offices.
During his second tenure from 2012-2016, the BFF, with assistance of former Sheikh Jamal DC president Manzur Kader, held district league twice. BFF, supported by government fund, helped DFAs to hold leagues twice between 2016 and 2020.
The BFF president also reiterated his promise of holding national football league, Sheikh Kamal U-19 and Sheikh Russel U-12 championships with participation of district teams.
The BFF boss also gave strong directive to clubs to be prepared for participating in the Bangladesh Premier League as per schedule.
"We will hold the league in line with official announcement. If any club doesn't want to play, the league will be held with the rest of the teams. We have had a lot of compromise and friendship, there is no friendship now because it is only time for football now," said Salahuddin.
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