While the ongoing 2020 AFC Cup is yet to resume after being suspended in March in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the process of participating in the 2021 edition has already started with the Bangladesh Football Federation asking interest clubs of the Bangladesh Premier League to submit their documents by August 5.

A majority of the clubs expressed interest to get AFC Cup Club licensing, which is mandatory to take part in Asia's second-tier club tournament, in the hope of earning tickets to take part in the AFC Cup in the altered situation due to the global pandemic.

Of nine clubs, Bashundhara Kings, Abahani, Sheikh Russel KC and Saif SC have started uploading their documents to meet the AFC Cup club licensing criteria, which includes five areas – sporting, infrastructure, personnel and administrative, league and financial.

The AFC will scrutinise the documents for two weeks after the deadline on August 5 before they sit with the member associations to set up new regulations for the clubs' eligibility for the 2021 edition AFC Cup.

Bangladesh have two slots in the AFC Cup with the BPL champions entering the group stage directly while Federation Cup champions take part in the play-off stage, subject to having AFC Cup club licensing, but the cancellation of the BPL due to the pandemic have made things different.

"The AFC always asks for the names for the AFC Cup after the completion of the league and we send the names of Federation Cup champions and top four teams of the league. So, most clubs who could not produce good results hardly showed interest. But now all clubs have a chance to take part in the 2021 AFC Cup following the cancellation of the league. That's why so many clubs have shown interest," said BFF competition manager Zaber Bin Taher Ansari, adding that the AFC has yet to release any regulations relating to the 2021 AFC Cup.

Federation Cup champions Bashundhara Kings are all but confirmed for the next edition of the AFC Cup while runners-up Rahmatganj MFS will perhaps get second priority according to the standing of the Federation Cup, subject to meeting the club licensing.  

"We had earlier applied for club licensing but could not fulfil the criteria. It might have been that we were reluctant to meet the criteria properly because of our standing in the league but this time we are really serious about fulfilling the criteria because we may get an opportunity to take part in the AFC Cup as Fed Cup runners-up," said Rahmatganj MFS general secretary Imtiaz Hamid Sabuj.

Uttar Baridhara Club general secretary Jahangir Alam however said that they have not applied to get the opportunity to take part in AFC Cup, rather they wanted to strengthen their professional structure and identify loopholes in a bid to improve progress further.