The Bangladesh football Federation on Saturday extended the time for reigning Bangladesh Premier League champions Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club to pay all their due money that some clubs owe to them after the last season’s players’ transfer window. The news came hours before the ninth edition of the BPL, which gets underway in Chittagong today, with Jamal taking on Arambagh Krira Sangha in the opening match.
According to Bangladesh Football Federation’s assessment, few clubs and players were still due to receive Tk 56.2 lakh from Jamal which they failed to provide by July 22, the deadline given by BFF.
Considering Jamal’s request, BFF again extended the payment deadline date to August 30.
‘Following a request from Jamal, we gave another deadline to them [Jamal],’ BFF senior vice-president Abdus Salam Murshedy said on Saturday.
‘We actually want to avoid all the problems to start the league smoothly. As a result, we have decided to extend the deadline.’
According to BFF, Sheikh Russell Krira Chakra were due to receive Tk 27 lakh from Jamal after it signed defenders Mohammed Linkon and Didarul Alam, who initially took the advance payment from Russell.
Jamal owe Tk 12.5 lakh from Abahani, who provided advanced payment to Kesto Kumar and Yeasin Khan, but both the defenders changed their decision and signed for Jamal.
The club also owes a total of Tk 16.7 lakh to few players who played for them during the last season including goalkeeper Shahidul Alam Sohel, defenders Yeamin Ahmed Chowdhury Munna and Nasir Uddin Chowdhury as their arrears salary.
On the other hand, Jamal have a due of Tk 16.33 lakh from three players — midfielder Sheikh Alamgir Kabir Rana, defenders Rayhan Hasan and midfielder Sohel Rana, who joined other clubs after taking advance payment from the Dhanmondi-based outfit.
BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag said they have provided several deadlines to Jamal to resolve the issues but they failed to meet those in time.
‘We asked Jamal repeatedly to solve the payment issues in the last few months,’ Shohag told reporters on Saturday.
‘Our players’ status committee also recommended not allowing the players to take part in the league if they failed to solve out the problems.
‘That’s why we extended the deadline on several occasions following Jamal’s request but still they failed to resolve the whole issue by the last deadline [July 20].’
Though the game’s governing body provided another deadline to Jamal, Sheikh Russell and Abahani Limited provided their anger over the issues and they blamed BFF, who earlier took the responsibility to resolve the problems before the start of the new season.
‘All the responsibility is now at BFF’s hand because they told us that they would solve the issue by the deadline on July 22,’ said Russell’s director of sports Saleh Jamal Selim.
‘No Jamal official’s even contacted with us over the issue.’
Abahani manager Satyajit Das Rupu also blamed BFF for not solving the matter before the league starts.
‘BFF said they would look after the issue but still we didn’t receive any money from Jamal,’ he said.
‘Now we are looking to BFF for getting the amount.’
-With New Age input
