Former national team striker-turned-coach Saifur Rahman Moni stepped down after the game in which his own side, Azampur FC, were allegedly involved in match-fixing in the Bangladesh Champions League (BCL). Moni revealed his brief BCL experience with The Daily Star's Anisur Rahman during an interview. The excerpts are below:

The Daily Star (DS): How was your maiden coaching experience long after retiring from football?

Saifur Rahman Moni (SRM): The experience was good but the environment and situation in Bangladesh Championship League (BCL) is really sick and dirty. I don't know about the situation in the Bangladesh Premier League but BCL is messy.

DS: You complained about your seventh and eighth matches but what about the first six?

SRM: Everything went in the right direction in the first six matches as I believe the boys fought hard in every match. However, I was doubtful about the seventh match [against Uttara FC] but everything was clear to me in the eighth match [against Farashganj SC], following which I resigned from the coaching role.

DS: Could you please elaborate on how the two matches went?

SRM: Actually, if you were present on the ground, you would also clearly understand that the match was being fixed. Why should I toil hard from 6:30am to 11:00am for the team if the outcome of the match is predetermined by outsiders rather than the performance on the ground? What happened against Farashganj SC was really naked. You see, I always change the captaincy in every match and I appointed Faizullah as the captain in the match against Farashganj but the club president Saidur Rahman Manik opposed the move and reappointed Saddam as the captain. This incident surprised me as such a thing had never happened before. During the match, the club president stood at the dugout, in my place, and delivered the instructions to the players, saying 'Go! Go score goals'. And also, Farashganj did not field the players against whom I did my homework. Having considered everything, I understood that something was gravely wrong. When the game started, it became all too obvious that our opponents allowed our players to strike on goal.   

DS: Who do you think is involved in the wrongdoings?

SRM: Match-fixing has been happening in our domestic competitions for a long time but that was only restricted to deciding the title or avoiding relegation. However, this time around, many clubs are involved instead of a single team. Sometimes players, club officials or coaches are also involved. In short, whoever is needed to fix matches, is being used. It all involves a big syndicate, I think, who are tough to expose publicly.

DS: Did you share your observations with the BFF?

SRM: Yes, I wrote to the Bangladesh Football Federation general secretary saying that I am doubtful of whether our club played its seventh and eighth matches properly, so that I don't involve myself in any illegal activity.

DS: Why are these match fixing, spot fixing or betting taking place?

SRM: I think the main objective of committing such things is money. I don't know how much money is exchanged in each fixed match but it must be a large amount. We have heard that around four to five clubs are involved in match-fixing, which has turned into an epidemic here, I think.

DS: What is your take on the standard of BCL?

SRM: The players of BCL are supposed to move into higher tier leagues such as BPL but how many players are moving there every season? The number is few. I want to share something else with you. At the beginning, when I asked our players questions concerning basic football terminologies, only one or two could answer. I reckon there is no production from BCL and match-fixing is also destroying the players further.

DS: Did BFF arrange any seminar on match-fixing issues before the start of BCL?

SRM:  No, I did not see anything. However, the BFF did a good job of arranging a seminar, in presence of the players and referees, informing the updated rules of the game.

DS: Do you think it is possible to eliminate match-fixing at all?

SRM: Nothing is impossible. I think every stakeholder needs to be aware of match-fixing. I think the journalists hardly cover the BCL matches but once they had covered the Pioneer League matches. There are hardly any representatives from the federation present in BCL matches. If the monitoring was strengthened, then such things would not have happened so openly like now, I think.