Kings, Baridhara banned from Federation Cup

Bashundhara Kings and Uttara Baridhara have been banned from the next edition of the Federation Cup and fined Tk 5 lakh after the clubs refused to play in this year’s edition.

The decision was taken on Monday after a meeting of the Bangladesh Football Federation Disciplinary committee.

BFF’s statement read that Kings and Baridhara had violated Article 19.3 of the bylaws of the Federation Cup, resulting in their ban from the next Federation Cup and a fine worth Tk 5 lakh.

On Friday, defending Champions Kings had withdrawn from the tournament stating that the playing field of the Bir Shrestha Shahid Sipahi Mostofa Kamal Stadium was unsuitable for professional football, and accused BFF of fixture manipulation.

Baridhara also denied participating if the tournament was held at the Shahid Sipahi Mostofa Kamal stadium.

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.

The Federation Cup was set to start on Saturday with a match between Kings and Swadhinata Krira Shangha, but the former did not arrive to play.

On the same day, Baridhara did not arrive for their match against Dhaka Abahani Ltd. Both Swadhinata KC and Abahani were handed three points for those matches.