IAAF suspends fund for BAF

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspended its annual allocation to the Bangladesh Athletics Federation (BAF) due to non-submission of BAF's annual reports to the sport's world governing body, confirmed BAF president Ali Kabir.

“We last received the IAAF allocation in 2015 but they did not release fund for 2016 as our federation did not submit its annual reports on the activities of the federation last year,” Ali Kabir said. “BAF general secretary Ibrahim Chengis was supposed to send it to the IAAF but he did not do so; he did not even let the executive committee know of the matter.”

“I came to know about it on March 6 after communicating with an IAAF official. The IAAF also sent the papers on it the following day,” Kabir said. “As all members resigned from the executive committee ahead of the BAF polls, I am now trying to prepare the report for 2015 and 2016 with the help of some former BAF officials. I don't know whether I will be able to lift the suspension.”

Kabir, a former secretary of the National Sports Council, blamed Chengis for the IAAF suspension and the country's poor state of athletics. He also urged the authority concerned to form an ad-hoc committee immediately in order to save athletics.