Bangabandhu Gold Cup pushed back

The Bangabandhu Gold Cup will get underway from the third week of April with the participation of six nations, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) confirmed yesterday.

The tournament, an annual event in the BFF fixture, was scheduled to start on March 11 but the game's governing body have pushed back the tournament till the next month while also reducing the number of teams from eight to six.

"We need some time to bring the foreign teams. Besides that the schedule of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup did not match the schedules of other participating countries. That's why we have taken the tournament to next month," said BFF senior vice president Abdus Salam Murshedy after a long five-hour meeting of the executive committee at the BFF House yesterday.

Without mentioning the names of the participating counties, Murshedy said that they had already started to send out invites to prospective teams but the response was not good. He also avoided questions about whether the BFF has yet to clear the last edition's prize money of US $50,000 to champions Nepal.

Murshedy further informed that the National Teams Committee was looking at the matter of appointing a head coach for the national team, adding that some good news might be coming within a week.

Another decision taken in the meeting was that each of the Bangladesh Premier League clubs could field two foreign players after registering three foreigners. In the last season teams could field three foreign players after registering four.

A decision was also taken to uphold the BFF appeal committee's decision to relegate both Feni Soccer Club and Uttar Baridhara Club to the Bangladesh Championship League (BCL) following their failure to turn up to the relegation-deciding play-off matches. Besides, Bashundhara Kings' appeal to play in the BCL from the second division league was also approved.

The transfer windows of both Bangladesh Premier League and Championship League will remain open from April 1-30 and the season is scheduled to get underway through the Federation Cup from May 5.