Committees fail to meet deadline

A month has passed since the Executive Committee of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) requested two subcommittees -- the Professional Football League Committee (PFLC) and the Dhaka Metropolis Football League Committee (DMFLC) -- to prepare separate frameworks in a bid to strengthen the professional league and the Dhaka city based leagues. However, those two committees are yet to even discuss the issues, with the deadline for submitting the frameworks having passed yesterday.

It was a rare occasion where the executive committee had discussed on how to develop football, fixing a calendar for the next three years and how to synchronize all the domestic competitions. In that meeting the PFLC and DMFLC were instructed to prepare a framework on how to make the Professional Football League as well as the DMFLC-organised leagues, which are irregular, more attractive and productive.

PFLC chairman and BFF's senior vice-president Abdus Salam Murshedy admitted that the committee is yet to hold discussions but added that he personally has been working round the clock to make the leagues enthralling.

“I work on it every day but I don't know whether the DMFLC discussed it yet. I think if the Dhaka-based clubs can be tagged with the district, then those clubs can pull a lot of spectators and the league will be attractive,” Murshedy explained.

“As I have been preoccupied with family engagements, I instructed co-chairman [Saleh Jaman] Selim to prepare an outline but I doubt he did so because I would have been informed if he had done,” said DMFLC chairman Harun-Ur-Rashid while saying committee could not call a meeting as the DMFLC committee has not yet been approved by the game's governing body.

However, Harun said that the thought of merging all four leagues – First, Second, Third and Pioneer – to devise a new format in which there will be two or three leagues under the DMFLC, is one they were mulling over.

Since 2005, the First and Third Division Football Leagues were held five times, Second Division leagues four times and the pioneer league has been held eight times.