Kings withdraw day before tournament opener

Defending Champions Bashundhara Kings withdrew from the upcoming Federation Cup on Friday, just a day before the tournament kicking off on Saturday.

Kings stated that they would not play the tournament at the Bir Shrestha Shahid Sipahi Mostofa Kamal Stadium and accused the Bangladesh Football Federation of fixture manipulation.

The tournament, set to start on Saturday, saw its draw held on Thursday at the BFF office in Motijheel. In the draw, Kings were seeded into group A.

Primarily, teams qualifying from group A were to face teams qualifying from group C in the quarter-finals. But later, it was changed so that qualified teams from group A would face qualified teams from group B, whereas qualified teams from group C would face teams from group D.

In a letter sent to the General Secretary of BFF, Abu Nayem Shohag, Kings said they were withdrawing from the tournament following a ‘serious violation to the fixtures presented to clubs’.

“We through this letter want to inform you that Bashundhara Kings will not be participating in Federation Cup 2021 for two reasons. At first, Bangladesh Football Federation is not acting with integrity to maintain the fixtures of the competition, they are changing and doing mistakes several times with the fixture format to give extra advantages to other clubs.

“And secondly Bir Shrestha Shahid Sipahi Mohammad Mostofa Kamal Stadium is not qualified enough to run a professional level of football competition,” the letter read.

BFF is yet to register a response regarding this matter.

Kings were set to face Swadhinata Krira Shangha on Saturday in the Federation Cup’s opening match.

Kings had earlier requested BFF to move the venue of the Federation Cup away from the Mostofa Kamal Stadium stating that it was not suited for professional football.

“This is to state that, the Bir Shrestha Shaheed Shipahi Mostafa Kamal Stadium, situated in Kamalapur is not an attainable field for professional rigorous tournaments, since the field is a very substandard quality turf, which is unsuitable for most of the professional players who have been actively participating in diversified tournaments including inter-country tournaments, due to the fact that all of them are habituated with grass fields. That mediocre turf field is massively injurious for most of the professional players.

“ln this state of affairs, We are also mentioning that players of 12 football clubs in Bangladesh, predominantly practice in grass fields. Considering these facts, it will be distinctly obligatory to transpose the intensive essential tournaments in either exquisite grass fields or appropriate high-quality turf fields installed in BKSP, which is mentionable,” a statement from Kings said.

Earlier, Bangladesh Muktijoddha KC and Uttar Baridhara had told BFF that they were unwilling to participate in the tournament but later agreed.

Kings won the Federation Cup in the last two editions and were the runners-up in the year before that.