Salahuddin brushes off ‘professional’ Facebook campaign
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin said that his popularity prompted others to criticise him, while maintaining that social media campaigns were being conducted 'professionally'.
"It means I am popular when I am the subject of discussion. I don't use Facebook, so I don't know about it but my office informs me. One interesting thing I have seen is that there were one thousand dislikes under a post about 'Kazi Salahuddin Ahmed'. But you know my name is Kazi Salahuddin. When I saw it, I thought one thousand people couldn't make a mistake. So, I can understand that a platform has been made for this publicity. It is not a big deal to make a platform through Facebook, so I can't give importance to it because it has been done professionally," Salahuddin replied when asked about the criticism on Facebook.
The BFF primo has been subject to the wrath of the country's football fans after deciding to run for president of the BFF four a fourth consecutive term.
A post made by the BFF on Facebook about the polls, slated for October 3, drew 26 thousand comments, most against Kazi Salahuddin. Facebook campaigners also flocked in front of the National Press Club a few days ago to demand Salahuddin and his committee's resignation.
Salahuddin said he had no intent to take any action despite the negative publicity and that he would not resign.
"I have come here to serve football. They and [SA] Sultan [former BFF president] are asking me to resign but there is no scope to do it because the elections are 15 days later. You come here by winning the elections. If you ask the president of a country to resign, there is no logic. Yes, you will ask me to resign, when I am not holding the elections," said the three-time BFF president, who also heavily criticised former footballers.
"I watched some news on TV about people talking about my fourth-term. They, who did not watch football in the past 10 years and some four to five people from the street, are raising questions. You show me whether those who watched football in the past 10 years are saying this? One thing is very clear: five to six footballers, who retired from football for 20 to 25 years, are saying the same things time and again on different channels. But, you never take any interviews of current players. Those five players always contest in the BFF elections and get 12, 10 and 20 votes," said Salahuddin.
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