Fakirerpool told to play in BCL

Fakirerpool Young Men's Club have been demoted to the Bangladesh Championship League (BCL), the second-tier of the professional football league, according to a decision from an emergency meeting of the executive committee of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) yesterday.

The decision was taken in view of an application from the club, which had won the BCL title last year to get automatic promotion to Bangladesh Premier League, to skip the season due to financial and organisational issues.

“Fakirerpool Young Men's Club will have to participate in this season's Bangladesh Championship League and their 11 binding players have been treated as free players,” read a BFF statement after the professional football league committee referred the issue to the highest body.

“We will sit for a meeting after getting a written decision from the BFF and inform whether we will play in the Bangladesh Championship League or not,” said the club's general secretary Sabbir Hossain.

Sabbir was a bit surprised at the decision of not permitting them to skip the season completely as clubs like Farashganj had returned to the top flight after playing in no league last season.

Sabbir however is mulling to form a squad for the BCL as the transfer window has been extended to May 15 from April 30 even though he is not sure whether they would be able to form the squad.

Explaining the reasons behind pulling out of the BPL, Sabbir said that they have failed to form a good enough squad for the top-tier league due to not being able to manage funds within a few months of completing their last BCL campaign.